When a group of tourists saw a legless war veteran go to the Shrine at Lourdes to bathe in its healing and miraculous waters, they whispered and laughed, “Does he suppose God will give him back his legs?”
The veteran overheard this remark. Turning to the group, he said, “No, I don’t expect God to give me back my legs. I expect God to show me how to live without them.”
Perhaps if we just asked the right questions, we would discover that God is not in the business of bringing pain and suffering into our lives. Rather, God gives us all the strength to live even in the midst of the worst kinds of suffering.
Thanks to Mickey Anders.
When has God given YOU the strength to live in the midst of the worst kind of suffering?
WHERE THERE IS HOPE, THERE IS FAITH. WHERE THERE IS FAITH, MIRACLES DO HAPPEN!!
My Commentary:
At first glance, the tourists’ whisper sounds logical, even practical. Lourdes is associated with healing. Why else would a legless veteran go there except to ask for new legs? But the veteran understood something deeper.
He was not asking God to rewrite his past. He was asking God to redeem his present.
The Shrine of Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes has long been a place where people seek miracles. Yet the greatest miracles are not always physical. Sometimes the miracle is courage. Sometimes it is peace. Sometimes it is the strength to live with dignity in a body that has been broken.
The veteran’s answer silenced the shallow question. “I expect God to show me how to live without them.” That is faith stripped of fantasy. It is not denial. It is not naïveté. It is trust. We often ask, “Why didn’t God fix this?” Perhaps a better question is, “How will God sustain me through this?” We imagine God’s power only as the removal of suffering. But again and again, Scripture shows us a God who enters suffering and strengthens His people within it.
God does not delight in pain. God does not manufacture tragedy. But God does meet us there. God gives resilience when we think we have none. God grants meaning where there seems only loss. God shapes character in the furnace of hardship.
The veteran went to Lourdes not for new legs, but for new strength.
And that may be the greater miracle.
FULL DISCLOSURE: In the year 2000 I went to Lourdes and took the bath at the Shrine. I had been suffering from terrible sciatic pain in my right leg 24/7 for over three years. The man in line next to me told me I would be cured, but don’t expect an immediate cure. His daughter had had a miraculous cure that the doctors all said was impossible.
Within six months my sciatic pain was completely gone. I have been totally free from sciatic pain for 26 years. I see now that God and the Blessed Mother were preparing me to spend the rest of my life helping the dear people in Haiti.
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