I am reading a phenomenal book by Paul Miller entitled, "The Praying Life." Here are some quotes from Chapter 14 that resonated with me today.
"Figuratively speaking, our house did burn down when Kim [their daughter with severe autism] was born. We soon realized 'the house burning down' was a gift. God had a better house for us. The old one needed to go. My wife and I pray because we are helpless against the onslaught of life. When I pray over a problem, that problem begins to sparkle with the energy of God. Strange things happen."
[Strange things have happened to us! Our lives are sparkling with the mystery of God providing for our needs above and beyond what we could have imagined.]
"Another author of an otherwise excellent book on prayer said that prayer was mainly about us being with God and not about God answering our prayers. As an example he mentioned that 'mothers in the days of high infant mortality used to pray desperately that their children would not die in infancy. Modern medical techniques have put an end to those prayers in the West.' Maybe. Or maybe modern medical techniques were developed in the West because young mothers in the West were praying for the lives of their children."
[You can imagine how I reacted to that one! Thank you, Lord, for the many mothers who have prayed for their children.]
"What do I lose when I have a praying life? Control. Independence. What do I gain? Friendship with God. A quiet heart. The living work of God in the hearts of those I love. The ability to roll back the tide of evil. Essentially, I lose my kingdom and get His...I move from being an orphan to a child of God."
"Suffering is God's gift to make us aware of our contingent existence."
Miller also talks about how tempting it is to be cynical and say after a prayer is answered that it would have happened anyway. This is a temptation for me, for sure. But, as I look back on our path and see how the Lord has healed Julia in so many ways and provided for us at each step, I refuse to give in to that cynicism and instead acknowledge that our prayers - and the many, many prayers of our friends and family - changed things. They mattered. Hallelujah.
1 comment:
So powerful. I can relate to a lot of what you are saying and quoting withBelle. Five years ago, they didn't do her surgery intranasally yet, theyhadn'tdeveloped those techniques yet. How many mother's prayers before us got us here, to this day, with a little girl with a shrunken tumor and no visible scarring after multiple brain surgeries and months of radiation? Thankful for the sparkles of God's work and presence in the past year, both in our life, and in your sweet family's life! I loved your last update! Especially that Taylor is loving his job - so awe-inspiring to see God's plan unfold and bless.
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