Temple Grandin was diagnosed with brain damage at the age of two in 1949. But her mother found an article on autism symptoms and felt that diagnosis fit Temple better (Temple was formally diagnosed as autistic as an adult). At that time, doctors advised that children like Temple be institutionalized. Her father wanted to follow the doctor’s advice, but her mother did not. Her parents divorced a few years later.

Temple’s mother took her to special needs researchers and neurologists, hired speech therapists and nannies to work with her, tried to make her school environment accommodating, and eventually enrolled her in a specialized school. She taught Temple social rules to help her remember how to interact with others. She emphasized that Temple was “different, not less.”

When Temple was a teenager, she worked at an aunt’s farm one summer. She noticed that the cattle mooed in different ways. When she mentioned that to others, they dismissed its importance. But Temple kept observing. She also noticed that when left to themselves, the cattle would herd themselves in circular patterns away from their handlers. She saw that they got upset by shadows, clothing dangling from a fence, and other distractions. When they got upset, they’d try to get away, causing damage and sometimes death to themselves and other cattle in their panic.

Years later, Temple designed a circular ramp system for cattle to go through the dipping process to protect them from insects. Many didn’t believe her or take her seriously at first. But when they took her suggestions, they found the system was not only more humane and calming for animals, but it saved the ranchers from loss due to animal injury. She went on to revolutionize the cattle industry with other suggestions and inventions.

In the movie Temple Grandin, Temple and her mother attend an autism conference by a leading “expert.” The parents in the audience shout questions to him which he can’t seem to answer. Temple stands to address some of the questions. Someone asks her how old her child is. She says she doesn’t have an autistic child, but she is autistic herself. When she mentions her degrees and her career, she’s flooded with questions until the moderator asks her to come forward to address the group. The parents are filled with hope while hearing someone who understands their children and has successfully navigated her life with autism. She went on to speak and write books about being autistic.

While autism is a different way of thinking and not a problem in itself, from what I understand, it can lead to misunderstandings and even bullying. Though Temple faced a lot of hardships growing up, her different way of perceiving things eventually became her greatest gift. She saw and understood things others didn’t. Her experiences became a beacon of hope to others.

In a similar vein, Joni Eareckson Tada broke her neck in a diving accident as a teenager. She has spent more than fifty years as a quadriplegic, encouraging and ministering to others, advocating for the disabled, supplying wheelchairs to people around the world, writing books, hosting a radio program, and speaking at events. Her words carry weight because of her experiences. We know she doesn’t talk about suffering only from a theological standpoint, but an experiential one.

Pastor John Vaughn’s wife and two-year-old daughter were severely burned in a fire in 1978. Neither were expected to survive, but they did. A few years later, when Vaughn sought for a Christian school to accommodate his daughter’s special needs, he couldn’t find one. He ended up starting Hidden Treasure Christian School, which grew to educate children with a variety of special needs for more than forty years now. One of their mottoes is “God has given each child what they need to accomplish His purpose in his or her life.”

Sometimes the areas in life where we have suffered or experienced pain or problems are the very things God uses in our lives to minister to others. That makes sense. Second Corinthians 1:4 says God “comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” The areas where we have struggled are the areas where we have learned to trust Him, to depend on Him, to function within the parameters He has given us.

Most of us have not experienced trials this severe, but we’ve all experienced problems. Family issues, death, illnesses, financial situations–whatever God has allowed in our lives, we can empathize with others in those situations and help them with what we have learned. De Witt Talmage has written that our work may be “to stand a lighthouse at the mouth of the bay to light others into harbor; perhaps to show how glorious a sunset may come after a stormy day.”

A poem that I have quoted often here is from an anonymous author and first came to my attention in Rosalind Goforth’s book, Climbing: Memories of a Missionary Wife. The first stanza says:

If you have gone a little way ahead of me, call back;
‘Twill cheer my heart and help my feet along the stony track;
And if, perchance, Faith’s light is dim, because the oil is low,
Your call will guide my lagging course as wearily I go.

From our experience with the Lord along the way, we can testify to others, as one song says, “All my life You have been faithful. All my life You have been so, so good.” And we can encourage them that He will be faithful and good in their lives, too, as they trust Him.

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)