Every Tuesday at 10 AM the church staff meets briefly for a time of catchup and prayer.  Everyone’s invited to share a personal and ministry update and then we take some time to pray for each other. Even though we work in the same building, it’s amazing how detached we can get if we don’t make community a priority. Getting to know everyone’s burdens and blessings over the last few months has really drawn us together.

So yesterday, when it came to updates, Diane our bookkeeper started us out.  “Well, I’m getting a new knee for Christmas!”  She announced.

“Oh, wow. That’s wonderful, Diane!” I heard myself saying enthusiastically.  The other staffers made similar approving comments. Everyone was delighted. She’s been contemplating this for quite some time.

Last year, Diane had successful knee replacement, and this year a hip replacement, both of which have greatly improved her mobility. But she knew it was only a matter of time before the other knee would need to be done.  For the past several months she’d been weighing the pros and cons of the timing and wrangling with the insurance company and her doctors while we prayed with her for clarity.  It’s a big decision, but getting it done before the end of the year is very advantageous since her family health insurance deductibles reset in January.

As the words came out of my mouth and we all clapped our hands in approval, I thought about how odd this all would sound to a person who doesn’t know anything about knee replacement, the miracle of modern medicine and the ultimate end result.

You’re celebrating what?

Well, let me tell you… In a few weeks, she’ll be dropped off at a building where people will put her in a drafty gown, prick her continuously with needles and take multiple vials of blood while asking her over and over again for her name and birthday. Then a man in a white coat will come in, knock her out and unsparingly cut away the bone, tendon and muscle.  When he’s done hacking away, they’ll use a sewing needle to close it all up, wake her up and immediately make her stand and move around on the unhealed wound.  While she’s there, she’ll receive substandard food, be in a lot of pain and not get much sleep.  Her Christmas will be ruined, she’ll be housebound for many weeks and someone she don’t know will come daily and force her to extend her injured leg many, many times. And for all this trouble they’ll charge her somewhere between $30,000-$50,0000. And THAT is a knee replacement. (I hope you’re not reading this, Diane!)

Who would want to sign up for that? Why the celebration?

While what I wrote is technically true, it’s a really twisted and incomplete way of looking at knee replacement. What we were celebrating when she said she was getting a new knee for Christmas was not the process but the result.  In a few months after the pain and discomfort of surgery and rehabilitation have subsided, she’ll be able to leave behind her walker and cane for good.  She’ll be able to sit on the floor and play board games with her grandkids, and taking long pain-free walks with her husband Ed.  She’ll be able to cut back on pain meds and get in and out of chairs without wincing. And perhaps best of all, she’ll be able to travel, resume her active lifestyle and continue to serve the Lord, her family and others, the way she loves to do.  The end will be so gooooood! And that’s what we were celebrating, not the suffering required to get there.

I think that’s what God means when he tells us in James 1:2:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds…

How is that possible? Who loves pain?  And why would anyone joyfully embrace suffering? Well, it’s not the process that’s good, it’s the result.  The next verse goes on to say,

³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. ⁴ Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

Our suffering filtered through the hands of our almighty and caring God is designed to produce something very good in us- maturity, completeness, a lack of nothing.  The process is long & hard, the result is good.

The book of Hebrews says the same thing about Jesus’ suffering on the cross. The process of crucifixion was brutal, but the end was life changing- the forgiveness of sins and redemption of all things.  And so, the Bible can say that Jesus was able “For the joy set before him, to endure the cross….” Hebrews 12:2.

So, maybe God has you in knee replacement surgery right now.  And if so, I’m so sorry… that’s not pleasant at all. I know the pain is intense, and the suffering’s real.  And perhaps there’s no end in sight and you’re beginning to lose hope.  But be assured. God doesn’t take your suffering lightly and nothing is wasted with him.   And the day will come either in this life or the next in which we all will recognize the good end that God intends for us. Those refining fires, are just that- an unpleasant process to a very beneficial end.  Let’s trust our Great Physician, our Sovereign LORD for that.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18