My one-year old son had been sick since he was three weeks old: screaming, writhing, projectile vomiting every time he ate, anal fissures, bashing his head into hard surfaces, rashes, not sleeping for more than twenty minutes at a time, and more. My husband, myself, and our now three year old son had moved across the country the year before with our work as missionaries with Wycliffe Bible Translators. In our assigned location of Arlington, Texas, we had no friends, family or church connections upon our arrival and our youngest son’s health issues kept me mostly homebound.
I had grand dreams of the ministry work we would do and the global impact that we would be a part of through our ministry with Wycliffe. The reality of life was a far cry from that. I rarely left the house, couldn’t build friendships, and caring for our sons was all-consuming, taking 20-22 hours out of the 24 in a day, leaving only two to four hours for sleep. I was barely functioning, let alone reaching out to the rest of the world with the Scriptures. As the days turned to weeks, the weeks to months and the months into a year and more, I started questioning God, His involvement in my life, His care of me and my family, His care for this world and the fight of good versus evil within it. In short, I had a crisis of faith and I learned six paradigm shifting lessons over the next several years as I worked through these and other questions.
1. Suffering can lead to a crisis of faith, even if you are—or thought you were—fully submitted to God’s will and to serving Him.
2. Even ministry leaders will struggle in their faith and will question God.
3. You can be faithful and obedient to God and life may not go well for you. I was serving God obediently and faithfully. Why was He failing me?
Source: Special Needs Parenting- Key Ministry
