A Prison Sentence
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and happiness in Jesus can be summed up in just three words – trust and obey. So let’s sing this favorite that I know you’ll know.
When we walk with the Lord, in the light of His word
What a glory He sheds on our way
While we do His good will, He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey
Trust and obey for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
I have to confess: when I woke up this morning I had to force myself to sing this song – Trust and Obey. Why sing this song, first thing, before there’s hardly a thought in my head? Well, as I’ve shared before, I have learned over the years to sing my way through suffering. And it’s what happened this morning.
It was around 6 a.m. and I had an hour and a half to lie in bed before my girlfriends were due to come and help me get up in my wheelchair. The reason I woke up so early was the pain in my hip was driving me crazy. I so wanted to trust the Lord that I could, with his grace, make it to 7:30 a.m. without having to wake my husband Ken to turn me. But, man – this pain was just killing me (I wish I could explain how it is that me, a quadriplegic, struggles with pain in my hip, but you’ll just have to trust me; it hurts!)
God just had to come to my aid, so I took a deep breath, shut my eyes, and I asked the Lord to help me get back to sleep as I started singing “Trust and Obey, for there’s no other way.” And right before I started singing quietly so as to not wake Ken, I prayed: ‘Lord Jesus, you have brought me through the night and now, to this painful place at 6 a.m. My discomfort is great, but your grace is greater still and I’m going to believe that you will help me bear up under the pain for the next half hour or so until my friends arrive. And just to reinforce this petition, I am going to sing, Trust and Obey.’ And so I did. And you know what? It’s the last thing I remembered until I heard a gentle knock at the bedroom door. I glanced at the clock and breathed a sigh of relief – it was 7:30 in the morning and my friend had arrived to get me dressed and up and ready for the day.
You know, someone once wrote that “acute pain is a night in jail, but chronic pain is a long-term prison sentence without parole.” Oh please, to me, that is defeatist, so pessimistic. The quote only makes pain worse. Because nothing could be further from the truth. So, when it comes to quotations about pain, I’ll choose this poem by Margaret Clarkson, a woman who was bedridden for years with chronic pain.
She writes:
Lord Jesus, King of pain, Thy subject I; Thy right it is to reign: Oh, hear my cry, and bid in me all longings cease; save for Thy holy will’s increase. Thy right it is to reign O’er all Thine own; then, if Thy love send pain, find there Thy throne, and help me bear it unto Thee, who didst bear death and hell for me. Lord Jesus, King of pain, my heart’s adored, teach me eternal gain is love’s reward: in Thee I hide me; hold me still till pain work all Thy perfect will.
Now THAT’s a better way to approach chronic pain.
Song: “Trust and Obey”; Written by Daniel B. Towner; Public Domain
© Joni and Friends
