Longsuffering 201

"Excuse me, you in white over there, I think I'm in the wrong classroom.
I don't remember signing up for Longsuffering, and certainly not the advanced course.
Isn't it an elective? No? Well I'm not sure I've had the prerequisite.

Love someone? Oh yes, I've done that. I love a lot of people.
And not be able to control what happens to them? Well I know that's true, but it's kind of a waste. I've got such good ideas for how to fix people's lives. I've offered God a lot of suggestions for how to answer my prayers through the years and He has never used one of them.

Who have I loved?
I loved my mom through 50 years of mental illness that made her a stranger to me.
I have watched loved ones in the sad, slow spiral of Alzheimer's.
I've seen others ridiculed for handicaps that God Himself gave them.
I loved the homeless boys God brought into our lives, one of them, like he was my own. And when they left and God asked me if I could love them the way He did, for years at a time, without getting anything in return, I said yes, but it was hard at first.
I loved my tiny grandchild who died at twelve weeks in the womb.
And I love the granddaughter I gained when my son got engaged to her mother, and lost when they broke up.
I have waited for loved ones to know and follow Christ, and watched some die without doing either.

My previous suffering experience? 
Can I count twenty plus years of migraines even though the meds I have now usually help?
I have never known poverty or hunger, but I spent three and a half years in the School of Depression. That counts double? Good, I didn't know if I would make it through that one.

I'd like to get a few credits for child rearing, a few more for childbirth, but the greater suffering was having them grow up and leave home. I want extra credits for that. I know letting them go was in the syllabus from the beginning, but I still was not prepared for how hard that final test would be.

And I got my Master's Degree in Grief when our youngest son died at 34. I'm just beginning to put that education to use.

I have had a good lab partner for most of these classes, but for a couple years there, we weren't sure we'd be able to keep working together.

So, just how long is this class? The rest of my life? Well, I don't know how well I will do in this course, but I love the sweet, fruity smell coming from the classroom."