To the Finish

From J.E. Tada's More Precious than Silver

Something needs to be finished, and you and I are the ones to do it. We bear in our body the bruising and battering intended for Christ. What's more, we bear it in a godly manner. I call it show-and-tell. Jesus is not around in the flesh right now to do this, but we are. We are the walking billboards of His finished work. We are showing people that His power is displayed, and we are telling them of His death on the cross. We take punches on the chin from the world...the cheek can be turned, the cross carried, the burden borne, the thorn accepted, the temptation can be opposed, and the wicked loved. 

If one can stay the course, focus enough to pray for strength, then perhaps we, through our various trials, can show the love of God. I have heard many stories of those who became believers because of viewing someone's trials and how the person withstood the trial with faith. And then, I too have heard of many who gave up on their Lord because of trials. 

Trials are terrible. I think of Paul and how his trial ("thorn") was enough to be mentioned in one of his letters. Admittedly, it was also a lesson on learning to accept what God has asked us to bear, but it shows, too, how difficult it was for him--since he mentioned it.
I cannot answer the "why" of why we face trials, illnesses, loss. I can say that my previous trials have shaped me into a different person, and, I hope, a better person. We are so born into sin that David writes of it in a Psalms, or being born into sin, living in sin, etc., that it takes years for many of us to learn enough lessons to be willing to let go of our beloved sin.