Cliffhanger

 

(Revised September 2015)

 

Most of us who suffer from illness will ask God to cure us.  His answer is not often an immediate cure.  We are partners with God and He expects us to do our part.  As the treatment of interferon injections have been unsuccessful in halting the progression of my MS, my doctor and I decided to start a more aggressive treatment.  The new treatment carries a higher health risk but between the initial patient candidate screening and the continual monitoring for adverse reactions, I feel that the health risks have been minimized.  In addition to the more aggressive MS treatment, I began another new medication that my doctor had hoped would strengthen my legs.  Unfortunately, though successful in slightly improving my leg strength, the side effects I experienced have caused me to discontinue its use.

Due to my growing number of physical limitations and the demands of summer projects and family schedules, with the exception of one short ride in a round pen on a friend’s old mare, I did not ride this summer.  In addition, my visits with the horses in their stalls had to be short due to the summer heat.  I have asked God to take the cross of MS from me.  I wish I could be braver and stoic about my illness, but I am struggling with what my loss of independence and physical capabilities are costing me and my family.  Lately, while talking to God about my current state, I asked when my affliction would be gone, and God told me, “Soon.”

God uses the cliffhangers in our lives as a means to strengthen our faith in Him.  Whatever the final outcome, it is His presence, His power, and His faithfulness that will be glorified.  Through the answer God gave me, I was reminded of the promise God made to Abraham.  God promised Abraham that, through his wife Sara, Abraham would become the father of nations.  When Abraham and Sara had reached their elderly years without producing the promised child, they began doubting God’s promise.  It wasn’t until it was humanly impossible for Abraham and Sara to conceive that God intervened with a miracle and blessed the couple with a child and from that child came descendants “more numerous than the stars.”