Bleeding Toes And Sufficient Grace

Several years ago I had taken a shower early one morning. I slid the shower door open to step out of the shower when somehow it suddenly jumped off its track. The door instantly fell right to the floor with its edge landing straight across the top of my big toe, like a guillotine. (I probably wouldn’t become a war hero in battle, if this experience is indicative of my potential.)

When the door hit my toe, I felt a mental jolt in my brain as if someone had just shot me in the head. I looked down at my toe and saw a deep gash, which was now pouring out blood. I jumped out of the shower into the bedroom on one foot and, knowing I was going to need stitches, called for Melanie to come.

I’m glad my wife already adored me because when she walked into the bedroom and saw a naked, soaking wet man with an anguished expression jumping up and down on one foot while holding the other with both hands – with blood gushing from between his fingers, it probably didn’t do anything to validate my masculinity to her. With Melanie’s help, we dried me off, put on my clothes and drove to the hospital emergency room where I received the stitches needed for my toe.

At the time my toe was cut, everything else in life lost its significance to me. I didn’t care about conflicts in the Middle East, famine in Africa, or even the spiritual condition of our own country. Only one thing mattered to me at that moment. You might say that, right then, my whole life was a big toe. My only consuming thought was, “I need a doctor now.” I didn’t want to bleed to death and have to tell the martyrs in heaven that I got there because of a toe cut by a shower door. I’ve never read about anybody being laughed out of heaven and I didn’t want to be the first.

Seriously, I find humor now in thinking back on this incident, but it wasn’t funny at the time. My pain served one purpose with extreme efficiency – it caused me to want to see the doctor. That is the way in which real suffering works in the lives of Christians. Suffering causes the believer to become consumed with the desire to experience Jesus Christ! It makes us want to see Him, to hear His voice, to feel His touch in our circumstances. This strand in the cord of eternal truth about suffering will sustain the Christian who clings to it. Our pain points us toward Jesus Christ!

Suffering brings the indwelling life of Christ into our lives in a manifest way, enabling us to sense Him, by faith to see Him in ways that are seldom experienced in calmer days. When I cut my toe, I became oblivious to everything except my immediate need and my desire for the one who could meet that need.

So it is in our grace walk. God uses the severe problems of life to bring our focus to bear on Jesus. For the believer’s thoughts to turn to Christ in our suffering is as natural as my thoughts turning toward the doctor when I had my accident. Suffering has a way of immediately distancing us from the superfluous, incidental matters of life which distract us from Jesus Christ. When a believer hurts, deep from within, at the very core of his being, is the heartfelt cry, “Abba! Daddy!” (See Romans 8:15)

When Abba’s babies hurt, He is intensively involved. Sometimes our pain is so great that it cannot be clearly delineated in words. At other times, we just don’t have the energy. People that aren’t feeling well often want assistance, but at times when a person is critically ill, they often want to be left alone despite the fact that they may need intensive care. When we cry out to Abba, he hears. Know this: Whatever you are facing today - your Father is with you and cares about your pain. He will guide you through it, one step at a time. Just trust Him.