All too often I hear stories like the one I heard earlier this week.
A young woman, (we’ll name Kailey for this article and her protection), approached me heartbroken. Her dad had been diagnosed with a vicious disease and given months to live.
Her church community prayed for his healing. Fasted for his healing. Declared his healing. Refused to believe anything other than his whole and complete healing. Kailey believed, hoped, and trusted, too.
Yet her precious father died.
His death crushed her heart and, from the pain I saw in her eyes, crushed her faith as well.
She had so many questions.
Why didn’t God save my dad?
Why wasn’t God who He says He is—the healer?
Why didn’t God intervene?
What if this whole faith thing is a sham?
Why should I ever trust God again?
The tears running down Kailey’s face soon raced down my own. I ached. So bad. I hugged this precious gift of a person. I prayed for God to meet her—maybe not as much as in the “why” as in the holy “who” of God revealing Himself to her (for a deeper explanation of this, check out Wonderstruck).
The truth is I have no answers. I can’t explain why God heals some dads and not others. I can’t explain why some people become horribly ill young and others old. I can’t explain the why.
Nor should I.
My role in that moment is to listen and love.
The worst thing I could possibly do is pour certainty on great pain.
I could have quoted Scripture, preached a short sermon, or offered a theological answer. But loving someone sometimes just means being with them in the moment. Aching with them in the pain.
Yet, as we enter Day 37 and Acts 23-24, I carry Kailey close to my heart in the reading. While there have been many parallels between Luke and Acts,these chapters reveal Paul’s life paralleling Christ’s life.
(NOTE: Click here to download a FREE one-page reading guide of Luke and Acts. or upgrade to the downloadable ebook called The 40-Day Live Lent Challenge: A Color Method Study for Luke-Acts for only $8.99. This 200-plus page booklet includes: a welcome letter, the reading plan, instructions on how to use the Color Bible Study Method, ideas on how to get the most from your study, creative artwork, and space to journal and doodle.)
During this Holy Week, though I’m in the book of Acts, I feel like I’m on the road to Golgotha. This is no accident.
Consider the following parallels:
Jesus is seized by an angry mob (Luke 22:54)
Paul is seized by an angry mob (Acts 21:30)
Jesus is slapped by a high priest’s aid (Luke 22:63-64)
Paul is slapped at the command of a high priest (Acts 23:2)
Jesus is tried four times and declared innocent three times (Luke 22:66-23:13)
Paul is tried four times and declared innocent three times (Acts 23:1-26:32)
Jesus is rejected by Jews (Luke 23:18)
Paul is rejected by the Jews (Acts 21:36)*
Luke-Acts grounds us in the truth of what it means to follow Jesus.
This is the path of cruciformity.
This is the path of laying down our lives.
This is the downward ascent.
As followers of Jesus, we are called to live in this tension of “What if God?” and “But if not?” (see Fight Back with Joy Bible study for a deeper explanation).
We live with hope and faith and trust. But sometimes that hope and faith and trust leads us down a road that we don’t want to travel, that we never want those whom we love to travel, a path that leaves us and those around us heartbroken and disappointed.
Luke-Acts reminds us that God does not leave us there, God wants to meet us there.
I don’t know what pain, what loss, what heartbreak you’ve walked through, but Luke-Acts reminds us that Jesus paved the way for awakening to God after great suffering.
My gentle prayer is that He will meet you—and those you love—in the midst of the unexplainable, in the midst of the unspeakable, in the midst of the suffering and speak the words to you through Scripture that heal, redeem and restore.
With great tenderness, love, and affection,
Margaret
Thanks to Baker Academic.
