Yesterday afternoon I saw a Facebook post about a good friend in Illinois who had apparently been hospitalized for heatstroke. I remember praying briefly for him and hoping to learn soon that he was OK.
However, later that evening my wife and I were on our way to visit a friend at his grandpa's visitation when my phone rang. I saw that it was Don's wife, Laura, so I expected that she wanted to update me on his condition and hopefully tell me he was improving.
Instead, she told me he had passed away. Don? A guy in his early fifties? Gone? In the middle of my shock, I couldn't help but ask again, "Why?" Why allow this servant, father, husband and friend to be taken when there are so many evil, lazy jerks out there that our world could do without?
My first reaction of course was, "God, you didn't come through here. People were praying, they asked you for healing, for protection and instead you missed this one."
Of course that's silly. God wasn't asleep. He saw everything that happened from the stroke he apparently suffered to the final arrest of his heart.
But events like this got me thinking again, even this morning through some tears, that we often think that for God to come through He must make us happy, He must keep us comfortable, and change things in our world so that we avoid pain.
Sure, some of us would say otherwise, but we can pray that way. We love to claim things for God that we have no right claiming and if we're honest we claim them more for our comfort and happiness than God's perfect will, plan and glory. Sometimes we even demand that God come through because we don't want to deal with our friend or relative's agony.
But the truth of the matter is that God owes us nothing. Everything we have, including life, is because of His grace and mercy. And because He loves us He sometimes does let us go through the worst because there is something on the other side that is better though we will probably never understand it at the time or until Heaven.
God has always come through to use that term. He did in the beginning, He did for Israel and He did at the cross. And He will today, tomorrow and the next day, no matter what happens that we can't understand.
So, yes, let's keep praying for miracles. Sometimes God still blesses us beyond measure so that He will be glorified, we will bear fruit and our joy will be full. But be sure to remember that He's the one who makes those calls, not us. And there will be joy in the morning.
