There’s this woman.

Years ago, she had a random, odd fall. In her early twenties and now paralyzed, she ended up with back surgery. Then relearning how to walk, how to move her hands. Years away from her family.

Once she was strong enough to go about her day by day on her own, she had to deal with chronic pain.

She bemoaned this, wondering what she’d done wrong. She didn’t give up hope or faith, but she did wonder… What is the purpose of this? What did she have to learn from this? What good came of it?

More than ten years later, popping Advil every day to keep the pain at bay, this woman went suddenly blind.

She then had a stroke.

A rare and newly discovered blood disease had caused her body to create blood clots at random. Thusly causing a stroke.

If it were not for the blood thinning Advil she’d been taking for her chronic back pain, she would’ve died years before, leaving behind a husband, multiple children, and a life she never got to live.

There is a purpose for everything.

Not shrinking from the trials we’re presented with (not running, retreating, recoiling, hiding, without becoming bitter)…. it’s more important than surviving.

That’s what this gal has taught me.