In the Biblical trinket shops of the world, Ephesians 4 is a favorite scripture. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. We find it on coffee cups, wall plaques, tote bags, and tee shirts. And the verse always sounds victorious in that setting. You can picture a body-builder in the tee shirt hefting a couple of small ponies over his head and shouting, “I can do ALL things.”  That kind of thing, you know?

But, in truth, the verse is about suffering. Paul is telling his friends how to face trouble in this world, how to be content even when they are hungry. Very, very hungry.

This weekend, I experienced the verse. One of our granddaughters had emergency surgery while on vacation six hours away from home. We drove through the night to be there, and then lived at the children’s hospital for a while. I did manage to email several circles of friends to get prayer started. But I mostly did that because I was pretty sure my own prayers would be incoherent. I know my Father sees into my heart, so He can understand that when I whisper. “oh, God; oh God; oh, God” I mean, “please help the doctors find the problem with this brain shunt and successfully repair it with no complications,” and so forth. Even so, I wanted some people to actually pray those prayers.

The surgery went well. The recovery was a little painful, but she was improving when we finally left town. No one was pumping spiritual iron, though. None of us were bumping fists and saying, “Way to go, I knew we could do it.” We were sighing. And nodding. And hugging one another gently. I think we were all saying to ourselves, “man, that was hard.”

Because sometimes doing all things simply means to suffer well.

And, we did.