This article is an excerpt from Graeme and Julia Cann’s new book, Walking in the Light at Midnight’. It is due for release in April 2024.
During our 60 years in pastoral and counseling ministries, we have heard some of the most horrendous stories of human suffering. We have walked with many for whom life has become so dark, they longed for the day death released them. We have sat in silence, as people in their deep grief have asked the question, why? Our own life journey has taught us there is no answer to that question that will take away their pain. We have wept with those who have expressed their disappointment that God has not answered their prayer for His intervention.
We have also watched with wonder as the very same people discovered that their Heavenly Father is a God who whispers words of hope and comfort in their midnight. We have been inspired by the lives and ministries of those who have emerged from the darkest nights and become untiring messengers of hope and comfort to others. And we have understood that human suffering does not speak of the impotence of God nor His lack of compassion.
He who loved men and women so much, that He sent His Son to suffer and die for a world which had chosen darkness rather than light, is not the source of suffering, but in a very real sense a fellow sufferer. He chose to suffer, although He is the all-powerful God, to redeem us. But just as it was for Him, love was more powerful than hate, and light overcame darkness, and death gave way to eternal life, so it will be for us.
It is important that we should reflect here, on the reality, that many people do not pass through a season of suffering, but live their whole life, dealing with physical, mental or cognitive disabilities. One such person was Fanny Crosby, the blind hymn writer.
Fanny who was born in 1820, was pronounced blind when she was six months old. Despite having what many would consider a disability, for the whole of her life she was a prolific hymn writer and speaker. Married at 38, the mother of a child who died in infancy, widowed at 82, she went to be with her Lord at the grand old age of 93. It is said that she was the writer of more than 8000 hymns, many of which are preserved for the ages in numerous hymn books.
At the Institution for the Blind, where she was a student from the age of 15, till she was 27, she immersed herself in great poetry and studied the lives of all the famous poets and songwriters. Her love for poetry and song flourished. Later, she spent a season of her life as a teacher at the Institution.
The next time you sing, ‘Blessed Assurance Jesus is mine’ or ‘Safe in the arms of Jesus,’ or ‘Pass me not O gentle Saviour’, remember that they and thousands of other songs were written by a person who had never seen a human face and who once said, “If I had a choice, I would still choose to remain blind, for when I die, the first face I will see will be the face of my blessed Saviour.”
Nick Vujicic was born in Melbourne in 1982, with tetra-amelia syndrome, a rare disorder characterised by the absence of arms and legs. Despite struggling with many difficulties, including bullying at school and a failed suicide attempt, Nic went on to become an evangelist and motivational speaker. Nicks attitude to life is in his books and messages. Here are two gems. “I found the purpose of my circumstances. There is a purpose for which you walk through the fire. If God can use a man without arms and legs, to be His hands and feet, then He will certainly use any willing heart.” Money can’t heal your heart. Money can’t give you purpose. I don’t want arms and legs. I want purpose. I don’t want arms and legs. I want peace. I don’t want arms and legs. I want to be a miracle for someone else.”
That’s it! When we learn that whatever the circumstances we face in our life, there is a greater miracle to be had than for God to deliver us from our circumstances, we have understood the heart and mind of God. That miracle is that His strength is manifested through our weakness. Our despair gives way to hope. Our sense of purposelessness is replaced with purpose, and what we become and what we achieve for Him, is the miracle that others in our world need to see and celebrate.