Good News/Bad News

     At this point, I think my readers are a mixture of Christians and Non-Christians so I'm not always sure which way to target my posts.  For those who know me very well, you'll forgive me for giving "TMI"  (too much information).  The good news right now is that I haven't had a seizure in 3 months!  That is a miracle in itself.  My epilepsy is mostly caused by my hormones.  The bad news is I'm probably not having seizures because I seem to be beginning early menopause!  Can anyone say "hot flashes"!  It has been a trying summer on many levels, but I found this article that helped me put things in a better perspective.  It's sometimes hard being a woman and the mother of a challenging teen while your hormones are out of whack!  Maybe you will gain something from this sweet little article also.


 A Time to Grow by Carolyn Mahaney                                               
There are few times I feel less spiritual than when I face physical and hormonal challenges such as PMS and (now) menopause. I feel tired and irritable, my sin sometimes spilling over onto those around me.
My strategy has often been to try and wait it out. Once this is over, I tell myself, then I’ll get back to making progress in the Christian life. I forget that I am smack in the middle of God’s plan for my life! God has ordained these hormonal days along with all the others! Menopause isn’t simply a trial to get through. It’s an opportunity for testing faith and spiritual growth.
Elizabeth Prentiss beautifully expresses this point:

“God never place us in any position in which we can not grow. We may fancy that He does. We may fear we are so impeded by fretting, petty cares that we are gaining nothing; but when we are not sending any branches upward, we may be sending roots downward. Perhaps in the time of our humiliation, when everything seems a failure, we are making the best kind of progress.”

The best kind of progress. Far from precipitating a spiritual decline, we often grow more in these difficult seasons than when life is easy, and we feel like we’re flourishing (remember, those feelings can’t be trusted!)
That’s why the apostle Paul sees weakness as an opportunity for boasting in the Lord:

“But [God] said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

For the sake of Christ, we are to boast in our weaknesses, we are to be content in menopause or PMS or postpartum depression. For when we are weak, it is then that His power rests on us. What an opportunity!