Enduring the Worst so the Hard isn't so Bad

“And from thence, when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet us as far as Appii forum, and The three taverns: whom when Paul saw, he thanked God, and took courage.” (Ac 28:15 AV)

 This seems kind of odd seeing Paul had a bleak future.  He pleaded to Caesar and that is exactly where he was going.  After two years of house arrest, Paul was to appear before Caesar for the charges laid before him by his own countrymen.  He would plead for his life.  Why would he thank God and take courage?  Seeing that he had imprisonment and maybe even death to look forward to, for what did he thank God, and why was he encouraged?  Perhaps because of the journey he took to get to Rome, Paul was grateful to finally get there regardless of the circumstances involved.  He suffered persecution back in Jerusalem.  He suffered a shipwreck and wintering in a barbarian island.  They set out in spring for the Italian east coast and traveled the rest of the way by foot.  His journey to the trial was worse than the trial itself.  Maybe God brings worse times before a trial so that the trial doesn’t seem all that hard in comparison.

I don’t care to go to the dentist.  It is perhaps my least favorite thing to do.  I’d rather clean a sewer than go to a dentist.  It harkens back to my childhood.  But I digress.  As everyone who has made these visits knows, there is pain involved.  There is always pain involved. Even if a cleaning is the only plan, there is still pain.  There is no getting around it.  So, I went to a new dentist because my wife insisted I go.  The pain starts with the X-rays.  Unless you have a great and experienced tech; which I did not; that reflector plate they put in your mouth does not fit well.  It digs into your gums.  This dear girl couldn’t get my pictures right.  It took her over thirty minutes and many takes to finally get a good set of pics.  In the meantime, the plastic guard dug into my soft pallet and I just knew I was in for several canker sores later in the week.  Then comes the hygienist.  She takes that metal pokey thing that is sharpened to a fine point and starts poking your gums.  “Looks like you have a little swelling and bleeding of the gums.”  So you think?  She yells out numbers ranging from three to eight as the tech enters them on her computer.  The doctor finally comes in and gives his suggestions.  Not bad teeth.  No cavities.  Just a few missing and one broken tooth.  We talked about implants versus a bridge and all of a sudden, the cap and bridge didn’t seem so bad.  Why?  Because I had been tortured for over an hour and endured pain.  So, what was coming next didn’t seem so bad.

We wonder why we have to go through hard times.  One of the reasons is to prepare us for hard times in the future.  If we had to face the bad without first enduring the worst, the bad would be the worst.  Paul was grateful and encouraged because he finally had the opportunity to testify to the Emperor himself.  All that he went through was far worse than testifying to the Emperor would be.  He may lose his life to an ill-tempered ruler.  But he had been through far worse.  He may have had to endure humiliation and persecution, but he had just watched his life flash before his eyes for fourteen days.  The hard things of today might be God’s way of making tomorrow’s hard things a bit easier to endure.