There are so many people suffering from serious sickness in our church right now that we wonder what is going on. There are children struggling with very rare diseases. Other people are fighting cancer, heart disease and potentially debilitating illnesses.
We might think there is something wrong with us, except I know of several other churches with the same kind of thing going on.
What do we do when we are faced with sudden serious illness? What do we think and how do we respond? The most common human response is to ask, “Why me?”
There are times when the answer to that question is quite clear. When a professional athlete shoots himself in the foot with an illegal concealed weapon (this is a true story), the answer is self-evident. But most of the time, the question is not so easy to answer.
So, then we begin asking, “Where is God in all of this?” And that leads to other questions like, “How can a loving God allow innocent children and good people to suffer like this?” and, “Why doesn’t God answer prayer?”
The only real answer, sickness is part of the human experience and happens to good people and bad alike, is not very comforting. But then there are times when God himself answers us.
Angelina, a fifth grader in our Sunday school, has been suffering with a rare brain disease since July and was in a coma for months.
The doctors finally diagnosed her as suffering from a form of encephalitis that was just [discovered] five years ago. The diagnosis brought a proscribed treatment plan that began to produce results, very slowly at first but recently more substantial. She gradually became much more alert but still could not speak.
Her mother, Rochelle, who has been part of our church since she was a young teen, held tightly to her faith that God is going to heal her little girl, even in the darkest times.
And this week God answered her faith.
Late Thursday evening, Angelina looked around her and said, “He Loves You!”. Makes you wonder whom she has been talking with, except we know – only God Is Love!
When we face questions that seem to have no answer, we still know this is true – “He Loves You!”. We can live with that.