I am sitting in the corner of our hospital room watching my sweetheart sleep. I am wrung out physically and emotionally from the roller coaster of the last couple of weeks. At the same time, I am overwhelmed by the joy of knowing the love of my life is out of harm’s way. All glory to God not only for successful surgery and the fact that there is no cancer present, but also for the peace He brought to us even in the midst of the stress of NOT knowing. Throughout the entire process, I had a peace that God would take care of everything and that He was not finished with Paige on this side of eternity. Yes, I know its easier when we are talking about someone other than ourselves, but as Bebo Norman sings, sometimes if you don’t have peace or strength or when hope seems gone, you can “borrow mine.”
Even as I write this, however, my mind is thinking of all the people who received news today of a much more sobering nature. Their tumor was malignant. The doctors did all they could, but they could not save him. The couple that lost their child to a miscarriage. My heart goes out to the husband who waited just as I was waiting only to receive the news that his sweetheart went to sleep in an O.R. somewhere and woke up in heaven. I have seen it too many times in my ministry and I have held too many hands that were struggling to grasp the news. Don’t think for one second that I take the news that my family received today for granted.
Today, it is easy to say that we were blessed. So what about all those other people? Did God choose not to bless them? Difficult question isn’t it? You see God is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. Everything he does, every action or inaction, is justified, perfectly planned and orchestrated. The difficult things we endure today may be reflected on in the future-- after the benefit of the passing of time—and they may truly be a blessing. Blessings come in many different packages. Blessings come on God’s timetable and no other. The fact that today happened to be a high watermark day in the life of the Brooks family does not ensure that tomorrow will be peachy keen. Although, I am still a young man ;) I have seen enough of life and I have seen enough of death to understand more fully the meaning of some key passages of scripture:
"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."- John 16:33
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”- Psalm 23:4
Lest we forget that it was man who was responsible for the way things are today:
To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return." –Genesis 3:16-19
We fool ourselves and we are woefully misguided when we presume that we deserve better than what God gives us.
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” – Romans 3:23
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 6:23
As easy as it may be for me to praise God in the midst of all that He has done for me, I also need to be able to praise Him in the storm as was so aptly penned by Mark Hall in the Casting Crowns hit song. I am reminded of the story of Horatio Spafford who, out of the most tragic of events- the death of his four precious daughters in a shipwreck, wrote one of the most beloved hymns of all time:
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
May my faith be that strong. Amen.
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