Does God Know How Much We Can Take?

The short answer is ‘YES!’ I know so, just because… No, just kidding. (After all, you’re not here for just a brief answer. So strap in.)

Once upon a time I had joined an online fitness group (which I’m still a part of, to some extent) and along the way, I struck up an online friendship with a psychiatrist. (You meet all types online. It’s the wild west out there. Hahaha!) As time past, we teamed up for a fitness challenge with three others. I had to drop out at the last minute as I was pregnant and knew that I would not contribute to the team’s decreasing numbers. They still agreed I could tag along as a honorary member.

In our introduction to each other, they found out that I was a missionary in Africa with no access to gym membership, limited control of what went into the kitchen, and hardly any electricity. Add to that heat at the time everyone else was going through snow and ice. (Being close to the equator has that effect.)

I’ve been a regular contestant in this online fitness forum and I’ve finished all the ones that I’ve started. I am considered an anomaly in this group. Apparently, a big percentage of people drop out… *shrugs*

During the 14 weeks of the fitness challenge (and almost every challenge), the comment I hear most from the members of the community is, ‘Well, if you’re still here, then I have no excuse to quit.’

And here I am, thinking, ‘Jeepers, you’re dealing with chronic pain,’ ‘You’re dealing with both parents having dementia and alzheimers,’ ‘You’re dealing with a burying a brother that you were close to,’ ‘You’re dealing with divorce,’ ‘You’re dealing with no work/life balance and on the verge of breakdown,’ etc, etc, etc. The stories abounded about the tough things they were going through, that I thanked God that I was not happening to me.

I couldn’t see how I could manage those things, and they were thinking how they couldn’t manage without electricity and other challenges on the African continent (the lack of protein powder, being a big one).

The psychiatrist said to me (when I visited him), ‘Why and how are you able to get deal with all these challenges without missing a beat?’ I told him, ‘God knows how much each person can take.’

He’s a psychiatrist living in Manhattan and working in Staten Island. I can not imagine going through what he had to do to get where he was at the moment. And the Lord knew that was not for me, so He didn’t steer my life in that direction.

No matter where we are in the world, yes, we got there by our own choices and decision, but I think that the Lord leads us in green pastures and never gives us more than we can bear.

Or we could be like Mother Teresa, who allegedly said: