He was sent to the Pacific theatre and suffered incredible hardship as a prisoner of war in a Japanese war camp. When he graduated high school in San Antonio he was drafted into the army to fight in WW2. My mother’s father (my grandfather) was named Richard. It points to something greater than oneself. Endurance then produces character (an ongoing dimension of one’s personal makeup) which produces hope. Why would someone boast in their sufferings? Well, Paul makes the case that ongoing suffering isn’t simple misfortune, but produces endurance (the capacity to resist giving up). In v.3 he says, “we also boast in our sufferings”. In fact suffering was not a punishment at all, but something quite different. This is an important starting point because some may interpret their hardship as punishment from God. Paul is wanting offer a word of encouragement, so he gives the people a particular way to understand the trials they are facing.Ĭontinuing his comparison of justification by faith rather than works he reminds the people in v.1-2 they have peace with God. Here we have a community of people who are enduring hardships, persecution, and suffering because of their faith in Jesus Christ. 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. And you need to let Him help you.Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.
God is working through suffering to draw you closer to make you more like Him for His kingdom purposes. “Not only this, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.” Romans 5:3-4. The road to recovery has not only pertained to my brain. Even though gratitude was not my initial response, my heart has grown to thank a God as loving to choose me in this manner to bring me back to Him. Not just for the recovery, or the community God purposefully placed to walk alongside me, or all the steady improvements along the way, but for the actual accident and all the ugly, raw pain that came with it. Neither my husband nor friends nor doctors could fix me, as much as I desperately wanted to be fixed.Īs odd as it might sound looking back over the past 7 months, I am thankful for my brain injury. I was like a child who was physically and emotionally drained from kicking and screaming, that I just needed to fall into the arms of a loving Father to embrace me and walk me through every minute of the day. I was confused and bitter that I wasn’t the same as I was before, and scared of what my new normal was going to look like. He has used my pain and my confusion and my hurt and my frustration to draw me into His arms. The MRI scan of my fractured right temporal bone and bruised left frontal and temporal lobes was the start to my long road of traumatic brain injury recovery.Īs painful as the first couple of months were, and feeling like my 27 year old brain was frozen trying to reboot, God was at work. I did more than just fall from a 10 foot ladder. With every question nurses were prompting me in the ICU to gauge the severity of the brain damage, it slowly started to click that something was wrong. These thoughts flamed tears of sincere frustration that rushed down my face.
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