STORY : Joy In Suffering by Joel Fritz

Story title : Joy In Suffering
by: Joel Fritz

    I remember a crippled man in the hospital where I was chaplain for a few years.  He was unbelievably disfigured. His body was twisted like a corkscrew and all he could do was sit in bed, day and night. If someone came to visit him, he could not even turn his head enough to make eye contact.
    Whenever I came around to visit him, my standard greeting would be, "Well, how are thing today?"

  And his answer was always the same: "Just fine, thank you."
    Now, deep down in my own heart, I knew that if I were answering for him, I could truthfully have said each time, " Well, things are a lot worse with me than with you, " and I could have understood.
    But seeing this man suffering and hearing him answer so lightheartedly, always did something to me: I always left the room both humble and joyful.