Something from a book I am reading

I am currently reading a wonderful book called "Recovering from Losses in Life" by H Norman Wright. Its a Christian grief book. I wanted to recommend it to anyway who has lost something in life, not just a death but a job, a home, whatever you need help moving on from. Its great so far. It talks about not only big losses but losses you might not realize you even have. Please check it out.

In the book he quotes another book which is "Loses in Later Life" by R. Scott Sullender. I will have to go find that to read, it looks good, but I wanted to share part of it with you. I really reminds me of Emma and how everyone needs to learn patience and tolerance of those around them. It is a great take on taking a loss and turning it into a gain. Its kind of long, but I hope you will read through it all.

There is a handicapped person in your future: you! Handicapped persons are dealing in the present moment with what you and I will have to deal with later. Sooner or later each of us will have to deal with one or several loses in our health. Then we will travel down the same path that the handicapped person currently walks. Then we will know their pain, frustration and sufferings. Perhaps if we would learn from them now, whatever our age, we would be better prepared for our own future.

Handicapped persons teach us that life is more than a body. They demonstrate the truth of all the great religions that the things that make us truly human and truly divine are not physical qualities. They are qualities of the Spirit. Saint Paul listed a few of these qualities: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22. Jesus listed a few more:meekness, peacemaking, purity of heart, mercy, hunger for righteousness, suffering in a right cause (Matthew 5: 3-10). Neither of them mentioned physical beauty or even physical health. The qualities that save us do not include the shape of our bodies.

Handicapped persons also can teach us how to suffer and how to rise above bodily limitations. Sometimes pain cannot be fixed, nor can all limitations be conquered. Most of us will have to deal with pain and limitations, at first in minor ways and later in major ways. We will learn new meanings for the word "courage". Either we will rise above our limitations and learn to live with them or we shall sink to new lows of despair, bitterness and helplessness. The choice depends largely on the strength of our courage.

In a sense, then, a handicap or loss of health can become a gift. It never starts out that way. Initially it is a horrible loss. If through the loss, however, we can nurture our spiritual qualities and learn the art of suffering well, then we will have transformed our loss into a gain. We will have grown in and through our loss. We will have risen above our loss precisely by not letting it defeat us, but by letting to propel us forward into a more advanced stage of human existence. Admittedly, not everyone makes such a major leap forward. Neither have some human beings made it past a Sunday school theology. Yet, the loss of health in later life, as horrible as it seems, can be the opportunity for growing toward an ever greater level of spiritual maturity.