“I read a little story by a priest who suffers from
tinnitus, an incurable and very annoying buzzing in the ears. Because he believes that we are
responsible for our own happiness, he has elected to regard this “little
problem,” as he calls it, as an opportunity rather than a curse.
“Waking up in the morning to the sound of a thousand
crickets is not pleasant. Thank
God, during the day I’m busy and I seldom advert to it, but the din never
stops.”
Instead of offering canned advice to others he simply tells
how he crossed over from a frantic search for relief to a relatively calm
condition of acceptance. He
believes that the greatest honor he can give to God is to live gladly because
of the knowledge of His love. His
happiness he regards as a sign of gratitude to God, so nothing must spoil it;
therefore he thinks of tinnitus as a friend, not an enemy. He pretends that the shrill sound in
his head is an echo of the song of the universe, as all the earth blesses the
Lord – the birds, the rivers, the howling winds.
“I let the buzzing in my ears become my unceasing prayer of
praise. ‘Cry out with joy to the
Lord, all the earth. Serve the
Lord with gladness. Come before
him, singing for joy.’”
It isn’t the problems that determine our destiny. It’s how we respond.”
-- Elisabeth Elliot, The
Path of Suffering – Discovering the Relationship Between God’s Mercy and Our
Pain
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