Sheila Walsh - Life is Tough, But God is Faithful: How to See Gods Love in Difficult Times

L IFE I S T OUGH B UT

God IS
F AITHFUL

L IFE I S T OUGH B UT

God IS
F AITHFUL

How to See Gods Love
in Difficult Times

SHEILA WALSH

1999 by Sheila Walsh

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles,
without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Thomas Nelson, Inc., titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail SpecialMarkets@ThomasNelson.com.

Life Is Tough but God Is Faithful combines new material with updated portions from the authors Holding On to Heaven with Hell on Your Back (1990) and Sparks in the Dark (1992).

Scripture quotations noted NKJV are from THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION. 1979, 1980, 1982, 1990, Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Scripture quotations noted TLB are from The Living Bible, 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations noted NCV are from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW CENTURY VERSION.
1987, 1988, 1991 by Word Publishing. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations noted NIV are from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

ISBN 978-0-7852-6672-3 (tp)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Walsh, Shelia
Life is tough but God is faithful / Sheila Walsh.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-7852-6914-4 (hc)
1. Christian life. 2.Walsh, Sheila, 1956 . I. Title.
BV4501.2.M494 1999
248.4dc21

99-10924
CIP

Printed in the United States of America.

08 09 10 11 12 RRD 11 10 9 8 7

D EDICATION

This book is dedicated to my darling son, Christian. Its my prayer, little lamb, that as you grow into a young man, you will know the faithfulness of God in the dark days and in the best days of your life. Your daddy and I love you, sweet boy.

C ONTENTS

I am deeply grateful to Janet Thoma. We have walked many miles together, and I love your heart, your talent, and your vision. You are a true friend

Its the message in a hymn I remember from my childhood: Nothing in my hands I bring; simply to Thy cross I cling.

W illiam and Eleanor Pfaehler, the parents of my husband, Barry, have become my American family. How blessed I am to have families from two of the best countries in the world, Scotland and America!

In the spring of 1998 my mother-in-law, who has liver cancer, called me from Charleston. Im frustrated because Im not sure my own doctor is telling me the whole truth, Eleanor said. I dont know if he is trying to protect me or he just doesnt know.

I heard the pain in her voice and wanted to do everything I could to help. Why dont you come to Nashville? One of the best cancer specialists in the country is at Baptist Hospital, I said. Ill go with you and we will get a second opinion... Bring all your charts and everything you have.

Eleanor ended our phone conversation that day by saying, I know I wont go one day afteror one day before the time God has allotted for me.

Barrys dad and mother flew into Nashville the next month and stayed with us for a month. William was finding it hard to face the fact that his wife is dying, that he is losing his best friend for the last forty-seven years. He didnt really want to know everything the doctor had to say; its a very painful thing for him. But because Barrys mom is the kind of person who wants to know exactly what medical science says, she wanted to know the truth. Then she would make peace with that.

William, or Bubsie as we fondly refer to him, didnt want to come, so Barry and I drove down to the doctors with her.

As we were driving I said, Tell me, how do you want this to go? Do you want him to just lay it on the line?

Absolutely. I want to know everything he can tell me.

We sat in the waiting room. We were all kind of quiet. I looked up on the wall and saw these words:

WHAT CANCER CAN'T DO

Cant steal your memories.
Cant rob your joy.
Cant touch your eternity.
Cant remove you from Gods care.
Cant stop you from loving and being loved.

Did you see that? I asked Eleanor. No, she hadnt. So I read it to her. As she heard the words, tears began running down her face. I know thats true, but it is good to hear it again.

Later, when the doctor came into the consultation room, I said, My mother-in-law is here. She knows she has liver cancer, and she would like to know exactly what her prognosis is.

Let me make one thing clear, he said. Im a doctor. Im one of the nations leading cancer specialists, but I am also a Christian. I know that what I tell you is from the best of my experience, but I also know that your days are in Gods hands and they are marked down in His book.

The doctor went through all of the charts and then said, Okay. The bottom line is you have anywhere from six months to two years. You are not on any kind of chemo. You have had fifty shots, and there is a new kind of treatment we can give you as a final last lap. You need to wait until there are some physical signs. Your skin will turn yellow, you will get pain in your left shoulder, and your liver will enlarge.

Mom asked, What will this regimen do for me?

All it will do is buy you a little more time.

How sick will I be?

The doctor admitted that she would be pretty sick.

Eleanor thought only for a moment. Then she replied, I will opt not to do that.

I respect that, he answered, but we could see a quizzical look in his eyes so she explained.

The reason is, I have a grandson. Then she started to cry. My biggest fear is that he wont remember me. I want to be able to enjoy him and spend time with him every day I have left.

Life is tough. My mother-in-law is not alone. Most of us struggle with difficult challenges throughout our lives. Over the last two years more than a half million women have attended Women of Faith conferences. Face to face or in letters they ask me...

If God loves me, why did my child die?

If God hears my prayers, why am I still single?

If God is in control of the world, why is life so
hard?

A little wrong information is worse than no information at all. I think its easier to reach a completely unchurched person with the message of the grace and love of God than to reach someone who has grown up in the church community but missed the point. We think we know the song, and we think weve heard the story. So we close our ears to the overwhelming news of the ridiculously lavish love of God, just as did a young student who wrote to me after one conference. Ill call her Susan.

I was raised in church, so I have heard of Jesus and His love ever since I was a baby. My mother and father thought I was the perfect Christian teenager. When I left for college, they were sure Id be able to stand my ground. So was I. But I failed in every situation possible. I felt like the lowest life on earth. I just knew that I could never be forgiven.

Susan went on to talk about her recent attendance at a Women of Faith conference:

I remember sitting in my chair surrounded by thousands of Christian women singing and laughing. But I could not join in. I was dying inside. When you spoke you opened a part of my heart that had been hardened for so long. As I sat there crying I rededicated my life to God. I returned to school with a new outlook and a lot of books. I felt rejuvenated for about a week, then all the old guilt and shame came back. I had already failed and I could not change.