One family has lost one husband/father, and now their new husband/dad faces stage four lymphoma.
Another husband/father faces the hard truth of chemo treatments every week for the rest of his life just to keep the cancer at bay with no hope of a cure.
Still another friend just lost her third round battle with breast cancer after being in remission twice.
And these are just the people I know that come to mind in this moment. There are countless others.
It seems like cancer is everywhere. It seems like it is encompassing the lives of so many. It seems to surround and cloud and choke at the heart and lives of so many I love and care about. It can appear hopeless at times.
And in the midst of that lie from the devil, I hear the small whisper of my Big God say, "But I have been there, I am there, I will be there. I have already been there. I go before you, before them, I AM before you, and I AM before them. They will not take one step in a place in time where I have not already been, where I AM not already present."
And somehow in those words, there is great comfort and great hope.
I cannot tell any of my friends that their loved one will not die. I cannot tell them definitively that God's will is healing in their lives. I will not remind them that God works all things for their good because right now, reality is life may not be good for them, God may not feel good to them, and those words are of no comfort. I will not preach that God knows best to them because even when I tell that to myself, it feels flat and lifeless and cold.
But my friends, fleshly feelings deceive. And truth is truth whether I feel it or not.
My God is not cold (Psalm 86:15). He is not distant (Psalm 34:18). He is not a puppet master pulling the strings of our lives for His own cosmic entertainment (Isaiah 55:9). No. No matter how it may feel, the Truth is my God is Love (1 John 4:8). The truth is He embodies Hope (Romans 15:13). The truth is He is Creator God that always has been and always will be (Revelation 22:13). So for all my friends who are struggling deeply with the paths He has asked them to walk, with the difficulties He has entrusted you to endure, I pray my words can point you to Who God is, not what He can do for you, but simply to Who He is.
Because in the moments when we don't understand His will, His purposes, His actions, His choices for our lives, in those moments we must lean hard into who He actually is. And He said, "I AM." He promises that you, my friends, will not walk anywhere He hasn't already actually been because His presence knows no boundary of time and is limitless and beyond comprehension.
So when life seems beyond hard, and God seems unfair, know that I will be lifting you in prayer, and I won't be praying that God's will will be done, and I won't pray that He works all things for your good; I will be praying that you never lose sight of who He is--your Refuge, your Strength, your Banner, your Protector, your Provider, your Hope, your Love, your Light, your Life, your Truth. I will be praying that His ever-present Presence is tangible even in the moments when you might give up on Him, you will know He NEVER gives up on you. He never lets you go.
There is comfort and hope in Him alone. Just the knowledge that He IS and always will be is comfort and hope alone. I pray you know and cling to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob--the God of the living, not the dead (Matthew 22:32).
He is present, and He is enough.
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