“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
Romans 8:28
Some of these posts will be a look at the past while others might be written current day. This post is a lesson I’m currently exercising my faith in. Faithercising. Can we make that a word? Tell you what, here it’s a word! Come. Walk with me while I faithercise through this seasons catastrophes!
Ricky Bobby just turned one year old has been ill for the last week and a half. We aren’t sure if it’s sickness or if he’s hurt. On top of everything else that’s been going on, dealing with a hurt baby horse can feel a little overwhelming. Some days I’m good, energized, and determined. Other days the weight of his health sits heavy. Having just lost a teenage horse last month, my heart is pretty sensitive to illness right now.
I was reading Jeremiah over the last couple weeks and I couldn’t help but notice Jeremiah’s calling was to suffering. (Of course He would have both my Bible in a Year podcast AND my bible study group focusing on this weeping prophet! Well played, God. Well played.) The Lord called him forth at a very young age and for more than 40 years, Jeremiah went throughout the nation of Israel and obediently proclaimed God’s word.
But nothing happened. The Israelites didn’t listen. They didn’t change. From the surface, it can seem as though Jeremiah’s ministry was a failure. He spent the majority of his life obeying God, saving no one but his scribe and a compassionate Ethiopian, just to go and die in Egypt. At the end of the book, I was pretty discouraged and I felt the despair and spiraling creeping in.
“Lord, I desperately do not want to be a weeping prophet!” was the cry of my heart.
At least when Paul suffered, he saw the fruit of winning lives over to Christ! I found myself praying a prayer of mercy. A prayer that begs for another way. Let me be clear, I wasn’t praying for comfort; suffering isn’t the problem. I desperately wanted my suffering to mean something, for it to not be in useless. It’s so much easier for me to swallow the pill of hardship when I know it’s helping someone else.
As I was driving down the country road to the equine clinic to drop off a couple bags of horse poo, I had a fleeting thought–it wasn’t even a complete thought but a mere thought that settles on you like an simple feeling and it was this: If Ricky Bobby’s unknown illness could help someone, I could endure. If some how, some way, this sickness, injury, or disease could open a path for someone else, it would make my journey through the unknown worth it. I could indeed suffer if it meant help or healing for someone else. If there were purpose for this struggle.
And then the thought flew away and I zoned back into the podcast that was playing through my speakers.
While dropping off the manure for clinic staff to inspect, I chatted with the tech for a few minutes. She told me the doctor had been pretty stumped about Ricky Bobby’s case but after consulting with other colleagues, he felt pretty confident that he had narrowed down the cause of Ricky Bobby’s sudden illness to roundworms (which can be found in their manure, hence my traveling bags of poop), and he believed in this diagnosis so much that he revisited his own foal deworming policies and made the executive decision to amend their more conservative approaches to include more aggressive prevention for future and current foals.
Hearing this news brought a large sense of peace to my heart! Thank you Lord for knowing the inner desires of my heart! If Selah Way Ranch needed to experience hardship in order for someone else to have momentum, I felt privileged that God had entrusted me with that job. He knew I could endure through the amount of pressure required and I would be able to respond to the pressure in a way that progress could be made.
A seemingly small lesson but proof nonetheless that the Lord almighty does INDEED work everything together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
Update: Ricky Bobby did not have signs of roundworms, however all the previous comfort still stands. I still hold tight that whatever Ricky Bobby is experiencing, it has not only allowed the clinic staff to restructure their policies which will no doubt be a benefit to their clients as well as God’s creatures, but our journey isn’t over! God isn’t done with this little foal! I choose to hold fast to the hope that God plans to help even more people through this situation in even more ways. He has proven to me that he hears my prayers, He will answer my prayers, and He has purpose for the suffering so I must choose to believe that He will do it again and again.