One of my closest friends has an older sister that lives in Iowa, and on top of her sister just being treated for breast cancer by a mastectomy as well as starting chemo, her sister’s daughter (my friends niece) had close friends die in an explosion. Appearantly her friends were playing with explosives in a barn and two of the boys were killed and one is unstable in ICU and barely hanging on. That is a lot for a girl of 16 to deal with… a mom fighting cancer and close high school friends, neighbors, and a swim teammate all being involved in this tragedy. My friend is leaving for Iowa to stay with her sister on this Friday and I am praying that the Holy Spirit empowers her to minister to her family during this difficult time. I am also praying for favor that her family will be open to hearing my friend proclaim God’s heart for them and that they can all begin healing from within from His fresh encouragement.
Why is it that kids make poor decisions and play dangerously? I can’t imagine what was running through their mind, and to know that this could have been prevented is haunting and their parents must feel devastated. The two young men who died were appearantly going to be leaving for their perspective Universities yesterday, but one died in his mother’s arms, the other died instantly, while the third boy has burns over 60% of his body and severe internal injuries.
How do you pray in this situation… how do you talk to God when you are so confused over how and why this happened? How do you try to encourage a young girl whose mom is fighthing stage II breast cancer and whose friends and family are dealing with the results of an aweful decision that took the life of two young men and harmed another. How do you raise your kids to be safe and make good decisions so that you don’t have to face the same thing when they are older? Why do kids do that? Why does my friend’s sister have cancer? Why God? Where is the purpose in all of this? I know Your ways are higher than mine…. but I’m struggeling to understand right now. I’m shrugging and shaking my head because I can’t piece it together & I’m giving up trying, because there is no way for me to grasp this. Please reveal Your will to me and give me the wisdom to understand that which You want me to, as well as the ability to let go of the things I have no need to understand. I trust You and Your heart, but I have to let You know I’m confused and so sad that my heart breaks for them.
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August 19, 2004 at 9:05 am
Doug
I’d say that the prayer you gave was right on. We don’t know how God can use such things to His greater glory, but time and again, that’s what happens. If that were not so, He would not be sovereign over all.
I’ll be praying for your friend, by the way.
August 19, 2004 at 9:20 am
Reid
I picked up a newspaper this morning and saw that. Monica, you amaze me at how concerned you are about people and how God must listen so much to your prayers cuz he knows that you are deeply concerned. When you pray, God must really take your seriously… it means something when you pray so I will start praying for them as well, for the family and for the kids.
August 19, 2004 at 11:01 pm
axion
Reid: I think God takes all prayers seriously. That’s not at all to diminish Monica’s prayers in anyway, its just to say to you that you don’t have some benchmark to live up to. All we have to do is honestly pray openly and continuously. God will listen.
Monica: Obviously I can’t explain any of this, nor can anyone know what to say to someone who is suffering so much. So we do what we can, we pray. And your words here have let me and others know of this tragedy that I would not have heard about otherwise, which brings more voices to join you in prayer. There’s nothing else really you can do. Pray and be open if you are directed to do something more.
If the girl asked me how she is supposed to cope with all the heartache that surrounds her, all I could tell her was to pray, to let me know if I could do anything at all for her, and to pay attention to the little things. Nothing is going to change what has happened, but the Lord will show Himself to her in remarkable ways to help her survive and be strong. Sometimes focusing on those little things is all you can do when the larger things seem insurmountable and unfair.
August 20, 2004 at 12:06 pm
monica
Thanks Doug & Reid & axion for the encouragement and the offered prayers, I relayed them to my friend, and I know she is comforted and feels prepared to give support. Sometimes when I am on the outside of a situation, I just can’t see past the why’s sometimes, and it just helps to voice through the frustration to be able to resign it to Him instead.
This may sound weird, but before my friend left, God showed me a picture of her standing at this furnace with bifocals sitting on the end of her nose, removing its filters for maintenance (they were made of transperancies- like for an overhead), and she was reading them when she removed them from the heater, to see what was written on them, but only she could see them, to me it just looked a solid grey color, yet to her, it was like reading an open book. After reading them, she set them down and out of her tool box she got new fresh clear transparency filters to replace the old. ~So….. in translation from the Spirit, God was showing that my friend has the eyes of discernment to read what is in and burdening the hearts of those she loves, so she can minister to those places from His heart, and give them a fresh unclouded view for the future. I know, sounds a little strange, but I have a feeling God shared that picture for her to go in faith at how His Spirit will move in her.