My friend of mine named Alice recently broke her neck in a car accident. It happened when they were on a long drive in their SUV and she and her husband were in the front seat, and their two boys were in the back. Anyway, during the six-hour drive, one of the kids asked his mom if he could have a drink out of the cooler in the back. So, Alice unbuckled her seatbelt, carefully climbed into the back, and while she balanced herself, she undid the lid to the cooler to get that soda for her son. Just then, a car pulled out in front of them, her husband had to swerve to avoid a terrible crash, and Alice went flying against the side of the SUV. The two vehicles did hit and there was serious damage done to both the car and the SUV… but the biggest tragedy is what happened to Alice. She came out of it paralyzed from the neck down. Sadly, the one moment on their six-hour drive that she had unbuckled her seatbelt… that happened to be the moment the accident happened.
You know, it reminds me we amble on along in life, then—Bam!—get hit with suffering and no longer is our fundamental view of life providing a sense of meaning or a sense of security. For Alice, suffering has not only rocked her boat, it’s capsized it. Because this was so odd the way this injury happened, she needs assurance that her world is not splitting apart at the seams. She needs to know she isn’t going to fizzle into a zillion atomic particles and go spinning off into space. She needs reassurance that her world is under God’s sovereign, kind, sweet, precious hand. She needs to see God is at the center of this awful tragedy and I tell you what, that’s what I’m praying. I want Alice to see that God is the center of her suffering and I want her to say that God is to her Abba, Father, Daddy – personal, compassionate. This is my cry in prayer on her behalf.
And I don’t know if your suffering is as strange and bizarre. I don’t know if you have experienced things like she recently did – that awful accident. But here’s the thing. If you are hurting I want you to know that God, -- just like a good Abba, Father, Daddy, -- just doesn’t give advice to you or to Alice, no, He gives Himself. He becomes the comforter to the one who is struggling. He becomes the father to the orphan (Psalm 10:14). He becomes bridegroom to the single person (Isaiah 62:5). He becomes the healer to the sick (Exodus 15:26). He is the wonderful counselor to the confused and depressed (Isaiah 62:5). He is our hope. He is our shield. He is Alice’s very great reward.
This is what you do when someone you love is in anguish; you respond to their pleas by giving them yourself. If you are the One at the center of the universe, holding it all together, if everything moves, and breathes, and has its being in you, you can do no more than give yourself, and that is the picture of God. It’s the only answer that ultimately can matter to Alice. And she is beginning to find that out as she learns how to live life and be a good mommy to her boys while in a wheelchair. God gives Alice Himself – not just a bunch of answers, not just a bunch of words – He gives himself to Alice as the word each and every day. That’s the hope she’s waking up to every morning. I’m praying it continues, and that it is the only hope that truly satisfies her and can satisfy you.
Used by permission of
JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 93176
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