God's Present Plan in My Momentary Suffering

This morning as I prepared to read the scriptures, the verse of the day popped up: "And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you" (1 Peter 5:10). Yesterday evening I returned home from the hospital after receiving Achilles tendon surgery due to a rupture I suffered at work. During the pre-op, I was in good spirits with an upbeat attitude praising the sovereign Lord through my circumstances, although this injury meant an early summer vacation from school. God has blessed me with so many people who have come to my care and to meet my needs, especially from my wife, my parents, and the body of Christ. On the morning of the surgery, the medical staff were a delight and demonstrated a level of hospitality and assurance that can only come from a sovereign God who loves and cares for me. Both my wife and my parents were at my side. At this point, brothers and sisters in Christ had also been praying for me as well as interceding for the medical team's sake. We saw evidence of this in the post-op care and encouragement at the hospital. However, I had not really taken into consideration the level of pain I would encounter when I returned home. For the first time (ATR being my first real surgery), I experienced a pain that I'd never known. Excruciating to say the least. I thought about Christ and how he suffered on a cross for my sin and wondered, "Wow! He endured the pain of a Roman crucifixion; the burden of not only my sin, but the sins of the world; and the abandonment of his loving Father in the briefest of moments that must have felt like an eternity." For the first time, I personally knew real, physical suffering. Although the pain medication began to do its job last night, the Father had not abandoned me. Nor had my wife and parents, unlike the disciples. God bless my wife Tiffany. For although she had to go to work this morning, is helping out tonight with a jr. high overnighter through our church, and has administrative duty on campus tomorrow, Saturday, she arose several times through the night to care and assist me through the pain and difficulty. That's when a bible verse came alive for me from 1 John 4:10-11: "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." She deeply loved me during the night and sacrificed sleep on my behalf. I cannot dismiss this as duty, for she didn't "have" to do it. She did it because she loved me and had compassion for my weakness. These acts in turn has made me fall madly in love again. And God's greatest love toward us should cause us to love him and to love one another. My momentary suffering (though not as a result of the gospel) is a platform for God to demonstrate his glory, power, love, and majesty in my life and in the lives of those around me. He is full of grace and has secured eternity for me through his Son Jesus Christ. God intends to restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish me himself. All this he accomplishes with a goal in mind: to increase my faith and to spur in me a further love and compassion for others, especially for the lost and for the household of faith; to shape me to become more like him.