A penfriend from the Eastern Cape writes beautifully. Between the words one sees the uphill road: 

My silence is the result of a broken computer. As a bonus, my printer also refused to keep printing on weekends. My sermon was only four pages long when my little printer came to a stop without any last-day warnings. 

After making enquiries, I got the shocking news: “Sir, we can’t repair the thing. They don’t even make these printers anymore. It’s an old model.” 

I felt slightly outraged. An old model? What do you call a man of almost 80, I wanted to know. The two of us have shared many pages. 

Pensioners know how to pray. Especially if your budget falls short by close to R4 000 every month. What does one cut out and why do my wants and my needs sometimes get mixed up? Suddenly a little porridge with milk in the evening doesn’t taste too bad on an empty stomach. 

The wallet is so thin it only has one side currently. There’s so little in it. I’m already longing for a donkey cart, because petrol is as expensive as gold. The old car’s battery dies because it stands too long in the garage. I no longer have the strength to push it like I used to. 

Maybe we can discuss the latest complaints and strange new pains in this old model again. 

And so, each of us can write our own story of hardship. At some point we all face an uphill that seems too steep. Often, the hill is so high that we feel it’s impossible to even take the first step. 

That there will be hills in our lives is a fact, and in fact, we are not equipped to struggle up the hill on our own. That’s why it is so important that we take God’s hand so that He can help us through the hardship. 

19So if you find life difficult because you’re doing what God said, take it in stride. Trust him. He knows what he’s doing, and he’ll keep on doing it. 

God made us and knows what we are capable of. God will not allow things to happen to us that we cannot handle. We must fully trust Him for this. We must know and believe and hold on to the fact that God will never let us down. Holding on to this confidence, we can tackle any hill. 

And while we’re struggling along like this, wondering what other pain is going to appear as we’re stumbling uphill, we must stay on the path by doing good. We must not allow suffering to make us take shortcuts. Soon we may want to use some of the worldly ways to help, but this is not always the right way to do it.  

When we then again face a hill with new and strange pains, let’s trust in God and remind ourselves that He knows what we are capable of. Then let’s make sure that we continue to do the right things, because in this way we teach the people who struggle along with us over the hills of life the right way to ascend them.  

Scripture
1 Peter 4:12-19 

Reflection
What hard thing are you facing?
Do you trust God?
Are you doing the right things? 

Prayer
Father, sometimes life is so hard and then I struggle to do the right thing. I also have too little trust in You. Please help me! Amen.