Tuesday, October 17, 2006

My Heart Hurts

It's Tuesday evening, and I'm enjoying some quiet time, watching my dogs sleep and catching up on email and such.

I just read a weekly update from a dear friend's wife, and my heart is hurting for them. This friend is someone I went to high school with, and he's suffering from brain cancer. And he's not doing well.

There's a guestbook on their blog, and person after person writes about how they're praying for this special man and his faithful wife. They write of God's plan and His faithfulness.

I couldn't agree more.

I believe with everything I am that God has a perfect plan for each and every one of us. One of my favorite verses speaks of how His plan is for peace to give us a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 28:11) I believe this. I speak about this often, and I've even written a book about it.

But I have to tell you: When you're in the valley, when the pain is more than you can bear, sometimes it's hard to see how that pain can possibly be for good.

It's then when we have to lay our hearts completely at the foot of the cross and ask for a peace that can only come from God.

And it's then when we can have confidence that God hears our cries and that it's okay with Him that we do cry. He understands when we just need to ask, "Why, Lord?"

We can cry to Him and tell Him that we don't really like what's happening . . . but that we trust Him, even through the valley. And we can pray that someday we'll finally make sense of what just doesn't make sense on this earth.