“In your writings, there is pain and abandonment,” yes, there is.  I get such accusations like- “he’s not writing from His relationship with the Spirit”, but I am.  It becomes the same as Peter when he sinks.  Why does he sink?  Why did Adam and Eve eat the fruit?  Why did Jesus sweat tears in the garden?  “But you talk about things ‘they’ don’t, like ‘unanswered prayer’.  The ‘faithful’ say it doesn’t exist, but you say it does.”  Either I am not ‘faithful’ and you have made another ‘pile of sticks’ you need to jump to remain so, or there is more to this than either of us know.  It would be easy to say faith = answered prayer, one proves the other.  It verifies the Truth that we can’t see and becomes little more than ammunition for Job’s friends.

 

I say Jesus shows us another form of prayer, for the ‘faithful’- Luke 11:1-12, and for the rest of us- Luke 22:39-46.  Yes, there is answered prayer.  Hallelujah!  People get healed, are resurrected.  Yes, there is unanswered prayer.  Babies die, people live in anguish and pain.  Is ‘faith’ to still say “Hallelujah!”?  Does ‘faith’ become- how much can you take and still praise Him?

 

I say: Don’t make ‘faith’ a pile of sticks that needs to be jumped.  Resist such temptation that makes it ‘us’ who made it, and ‘them’ who didn’t.  The ‘made it’ become the ones who prayed for their sick child who is healed, and the parents get to raise him/her and see the blessings of generations, while the ‘didn’t make it’ become the parents who hold their dead baby and mourn everyday carrying sorrow in their heart.  Many shake their head at such a dichotomy and abandon the ‘faith’ because of its impotence in the face of an unjust life.

 

Where is worship?  Shouldn’t it be for the victorious, the ‘us’ who made it?  No, worship was never about ‘us’, whoever we are.  It is always about Him.

 

I have witnessed the joy of leading thousands in worship, and the pain of disease that took it all away.  “In truth, I never cared for it,” is what people say to avoid the pain of devastating loss.  I want to point people to Jesus during joy and sorrow.  He is the breeze, the shade that blocks the unbearable heat of our life-giving sun.  Why must there be both?  I don’t know, but isn’t today beautiful?