Lately I have been thinking a lot about the old adage, "God doesn't give us any more than we can handle". I have heard this motto, spoken as words of support, from various people across my life, and as I have reflected on my experiences, all of the ups and downs, I am beginning to really question its validity. I shared some of my story, some of the abuse I survived and my journey toward healing, in a previous post. I have also mentioned here in this blog, scares and struggles with my children, deaths of loved ones, and other difficulties. I don't think I have ever mentioned the late first trimester miscarriage that I had in 2004 and our subsequent difficulties conceiving a child, which was one of the most heart-wrenching and trying experiences of my life. I will also note that recently I have had some health issues that caused me a great deal of concern. I will spare you the details, but I have been having some problems that indicated a biopsy of my endometrium. After an anxious few days, it was determined that the "BIG C" is not an issue and that I likely have a disease with a long million dollar name that basically means that my uterus does not work well anymore. I am not out of the woods as of yet, and I may need surgery at some point, but I am so grateful to God that I do not have cancer! All of these things have led me to wonder if God doesn't give us any more than we can handle than what in the world is going on here? I try hard not to be a "why me" person. I don't particularly like those people. A girl can wonder a little sometimes though, right? I wouldn't necessarily call that sin.
I ask sincerely and innocently, from where, exactly, did this statement about God originate? Is it in The Bible somewhere? If it is, I have not found it. If anyone knows and can send me a reference that would be awesome. I think the biggest problem I have with this statement is that it sort of implies then that God gives us bad stuff. That God makes people abuse us; that He causes illness; that He endorses crimes against us; that He gives us pain and suffering. That is not the loving and merciful God that I know and I hope and pray that it is not the image of God that any of you have right now. To me, the aforementioned things are all things of this world. They are earthly life experiences, created and perpetuated by humans and by the enemy in order to try to defeat us. Sure we could argue that if we believe that God created everything then He also created cancer. I'm still on the fence about that one. Part of me feels like cancer and some other diseases are the products of the "modern world" full of chemicals and other man-made nastiness, but I digress. I think, however, that we can probably all agree that God never created anyone to be a rapist or a murderer - that those acts are not of God. Here's the crazy paradox, though (and as Christ-followers there are a lot of these crazy paradoxes that we learn to live with by faith that maybe - or even maybe not - we might some day understand it all): God is powerful enough to stop us from experiencing these things. He is powerful enough to heal us from whatever it is that ails us, be it physical or psychological.............and He does. All of the time! Does He prevent bad things from happening? Yes, He sometimes does. Really, though, sometimes, or I would even venture to say that all of the time, our worst experiences, our greatest pain, can be our biggest victory. God uses it all to make us better. God uses it all to make others better. He uses life experiences to chisel away at our rough spots. It is not God's objective to make us happy. It is God's objective to make us holy, more like Him, so that one day we will be ready to spend eternity with Him. And the cool thing is that once we realize all of this - once we realize that we are not meant for this world - we become happy!
So no, I can honestly say that I don't really believe the statement, "God doesn't give us any more than we can handle". He does allow overwhelming stuff to happen. What brings me comfort, though, is that He can handle it and He won't let us fight through life alone. He walks with us every single step of the way and He puts people in our life that will walk with us through it all too. We just have to believe and allow it.
