Harmony is cancer free!!!
Happy happy joy joy!!!
Prayers are answered and joy overflows. I love when it's actually obvious that our cups run over and yesterday, finding out that news about my hero, that was one of those times.
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Even as celebration abounds, I feel the need to write just a little bit about prayer, because there may be someone reading this who feels like their prayer was not answered, and may feel anger that one person is healed and another is not.
If you've ever gotten into a discussion with me about prayer, you know that while I love Garth Brooks, I strongly disagree with the theological stance of his hit song, "Unanswered Prayers". The premise that he puts forth in the song is echoed in the chorus: "Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers." The theological error is blatant to those who believe. God always answers our prayers.
Period.
No doubt.
In our limited and fully-human way of looking at God, we often mistake a prayer that has been answered in a way other than what we had hoped for with one that is left unanswered. These two things are not the same. God always answers our prayers.
The issue is that God doesn't always give us the answer we want.
It's hard to believe that when things don't turn out the way we want them to, the way we prayed for them to turn out - when the cancer does come back or the verdict is guilty or the tsunami hits or the job is lost or the marriage falls apart or the loved one dies - that it's in God's plan. But somehow, in some often incomprehensible way, it is. We don't understand it, we can't make sense of it, but we cling to the hope and promise that God really does know what he is doing, and all will one day be revealed.
"For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." (I Corinthians 13:12)
The darkest hour is just before dawn. It's when we've lived through the majority of the night just waiting for the sun to start to rise and there's that period of time when it just feels like we will never see daylight again. And just as we are ready to give up, the sun peeks through and the first rays brighten the horizon and hope is somehow restored.
For those living in the darkest hour, who didn't get the answer you have earnestly prayed for, take heart. There is hope. Dawn will come. You are wonderfully made by a God who knit you together, who knows the number of hairs on your head and the words on your lips, who knows the prosperous plans he has for you, who knows when you sit and when you stand and every thought in your head. And one day, he will reveal all to you, when you see him face to face.
In the meantime, we learn to praise Him for all the answers that He gives, and we stay faithful, because he is faithful to us. Always.
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