Letters to Sarah: Thriving in Chronic Illness – part 7 – entire book coming from Northeastern Baptist Press in 2024 as part of the “Nevertheless: Finding Hope in Suffering” project.
1 Corinthians 4:1-2 ESV This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.
1 Corinthians 2:7 AMPC But rather what we are setting forth is a wisdom of God once hidden [from the human understanding] and now revealed to us by God – [that wisdom] which God devised and decreed before the ages for our glorification [to lift us into the glory of His presence].
Dear Sarah,
I know you’ve got lots of nicknames, just like I do. Your nicknames fit you well in expressing your sweet and kind spirit! I think “Sunshine” is my favorite of your nicknames….and here in the long and dark of all of this, you haven’t wavered from living your nicknames which encourages me deeply and inspires me to keep striving to do the same with my life even now…
On that note, have you ever been called a steward? “Steward Sarah” sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?
As Christians, all of us are stewards – stewards of the created world around and in us, stewards of talents and time entrusted to us, stewards of friendships, finances, and families gifted to us, stewards of the Word, wisdom, and witness graced upon us, stewards of conscience and conviction placed upon us, stewards of righteousness and reputations imputed upon us, and stewards of the love for Christ and longing for heaven growing inside us. Yes, I agree – that is a lot! But hallelujah, we aren’t expected to do any of this in our own strength – our Good God gives what is needed, when it is needed (see Philippians 4:13).
As stewards, our job is to tend with deliberate care what God has put under our care. We are to care for it as if it were ours, all the while knowing it isn’t. Therein lies both the beauty and the freedom of stewardship. As a steward, I have been given the gift of tending to something precious to my Good God. The privilege, honor, and responsibility of caretaking is an opportunity for worship in the simple and selfless tasks that display His worth, not mine. That’s the beauty, while the freedom is that if I do what He asks me to in the tending, He is responsible for the outcome.
Yet, as Christians living with chronic illnesses, do you realize that we are also stewards of suffering? It’s not a job we applied for; it’s a job we were appointed to. And it’s a job we can bring glory to our Good God in our daily choosing of sacrifice and sanctification. Recognizing and receiving this caretaking of this mystery of suffering opens us for His good work in us through the dark and the long of the suffering that (most likely) won’t end before we return to dust or go to heaven.
Others are watching us carefully to see how we tend to the mystery of suffering in our lives. Our responses and reactions, our choices and considerations, our attitudes and approaches to all of this can be an unwrapping of God’s grace or our own selfishness. Grace is always the best choice; grace is usually not the easy choice. This holds true whether the grace is for us to receive in our own mistakes or inabilities or for us to release to others in their misunderstandings or inappropriate comments.
Even if you might not yet have encountered a deep need for such grace, I pray that you might be empowered to rely upon grace when such times come in your life. For such times are opportunities for disappointment in others (and ourselves) or the display of distinctive grace that points to our Good God. He alone is King of and Provider in the wilderness of suffering. We are never alone; we are never in lack (see Psalm chapter 23). And reliance on these truths will help us be good stewards of suffering which is often considered as not-good. But our Good God can transform suffering, and us in here in the middle of it, into a place of thriving in His goodness in all ways. He always has plans for good for us, no matter how long or dark the days or nights (see Romans 8:28).
As always, dear Sarah, I am praying for you – for light and hope and peace to reign in your life as you choose to trust our Good God for the strength and faith and courage to steward well what is before you in life for today and the not-yet.
With much love,
Your friend,
Beth
Please sign up to follow the blog so you can have more of these letters (and other musings from this soil scientist) delivered straight to your email inbox – thanks!
written by and copyrighted to Beth Madison, Ph.D., 2023.
Soul Scientist 
Leave a comment