This morning as I was pushing the double jogger up the hill, I called Samuel a “prince,” because I needed an explanation for why I wasn’t letting him get out and walk.  Then I thought how messed up that idea is, that the privileged place is the easy one.

“I don’t want to teach my kids that,” I thought.  So then, once I was pushing both of them (Ariel was back in the stroller, asking why I didn’t call her a princess, of course you’re a princess, yada yada yada…)  I said, “You two may get to be prince and princess while I do the hard work, but at the end of the day, guess who gets to be strong?”

Sometimes I oughtta listen to myself.

Have you ever noticed how “other people” just don’t realize how easy their lives are?  You know, “other people.”  I’m sure you know some.  They’re everywhere.  It’s mostly an illusion, of course.  When we get into others’ lives, we often find they are anything but easy.  This is the enemy’s great weapon against joy, convincing us that those who have it, have it because of how great their life is.  But it’s not all illusion.  Some people (this could be said of almost all Americans, on a materialistic level) just don’t know how easy their life is.  When things are truly HARD, it’s tough to not just want a quick swap.  ”Hey, how about YOU push the stroller for a while, and I’ll take a load off???”  I guess the illusion can go both ways.  We can think “other people’s” lives are easy when they’re not, and we can think our life is hard, when it’s not.

My lesson’s coming back to me, right now.  I’m thinking how I could be somebody’s “other people.”

“Well, Suzanna, you have a husband who loves you and seeks the Lord.”  That is true, but there was a day when I was a pitiful wife and he was a poor husband and the combo was pretty ugly.  But with the help of people who taught us how to fight our way to peace and joy, we did.  And now, instead of just having an awesome marriage, we have to tools to teach other people how to do it.  We couldn’t see the top of that hill when we pressed up it.  But now we get to be strong.

“Well, Suzanna, at least you have healthy children.”  That is true, but I had a baby who was dying, when somebody taught us how to fight for her life.  The lessons we learned wouldn’t save every suffering family from sickness and death, but they have and will help many.  We faced the possibility of the worst thing parents can face, but now we get to be strong.

“Well, Suzanna, your kids obey you.  Mine are driving me CRAZY!!!”  Well, that’s SOMEWHAT true that they often/sometimes/usually obey me (depending on the day).  But given my background in behavioral therapy, I can tell you with absolute certainty that we fought against “disorders” in our first son that had we ventured into any doctor’s office for help would have earned us multiple diagnoses, prescriptions, and therapies.  And through Jesus Christ we won.  Not everyone will want to hear about HOW those battles were won, but those who do will find hope.  And so we get to be strong.  And oh how very, very strong that little son of ours is going to be.  But I don’t have words to do justice to the excruciating pain of those battles, when we were only sleeping a couple of hours at a time, discipline was useless, and victory seemed uncertain.  But someday, God’s gonna let us be strong for the deliverance of many, many little boys.  I just know it.

So today, I’m trying, demanding, INSISTING on remembering that there IS a top to this hill, we will stand there, and I’m not gonna look at “other people” who seem to be coasting up without effort, because at the end of the day, we’ll get to be strong.

You are probably somebody’s “other people.”  They don’t need to know how hard it really is.  But press through unto overcoming by crying out to God…and at the end of the day, you might get to be so strong, you get to deliver them, too.

³ And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; ⁴ and perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵ Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.  Romans 5