So the answer to many prayers was: 2.25 million stem cells in 3 days of collection. Some credit drugs (though they were the same drugs I took three years ago when we got 1.8 million in 6 days). Some credit the doctors, nurses, and hospital. Some credit luck. I credit the One who created me and knows everything about my body, my past, and my future on this earth and beyond. And I thank all who have loved, encouraged, and prayed.
One of the best answers to our prayers last week (a story for another time) was “no.” God answers “no” a lot, just like we say “no” to our kids quite often. Jesus taught us to be persistent and to persevere, but we still know God sometimes says “no.” He said “no” to Paul’s request for a ‘thorn’ to be removed and he told Paul the reason. I now know the reason God said “no” to us last week (in the story for another time), but most often I don’t have a clue.
So what I want to share today of what God taught me and my family last week comes from a guy who still has cancer, who has been the target of scores of prayers, and who has heard “no” quite a few times. This is something that does not please God at all: ‘double-mindedness.’ James teaches a simple thing particularly about praying for wisdom: “But when he asks he must believe and not doubt.” He then says a man who doubts (as he prays for wisdom) is “like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the winds. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.” (see James 1:2-8)
Here’s a confession: I would pray ‘impossible’ prayers to God, knowing he can do all things, but in talking to others I would declare a totally opposite point of view. Of course, I would not say to a friend, “I am praying for 2 million stem cells but God will not answer that prayer.” No, I would pray in private then simply disregard God in conversation with others. To God: “Lord, you can do all things! Please don’t let this time in the hospital be wasted. Bring millions of cells!” To friends: “Yeah, they hope to get 2 million stem cells, but it ain’t gonna to happen. They only got 1.8 three years ago and I’ve been on chemo for three years. My bone marrow is so beat up that we’ll be lucky to get a million.” This is double-mindedness – I’m talking one way to God and a whole different way to others.
This may be a poor example, but it’s the best I could come up with: A four-year-old boy often watches his athletic dad ride a bike and he wants to be just like him. So one day he sincerely asks, “Daddy, will you get me a bike and teach me to ride just like you?” The wise father refrains from answering ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ but says instead, “Son, I’ll think about it.” Within the hour the little boy is playing in the neighborhood with his three best friends and as someone rides down the street on a bicycle, he seriously says, “I’m so little and those bikes are too big. I’ll never be able to ride one!”
Of course, we would understand the little boy’s thinking as he sees ‘bike-riding-without-training-wheels’ as an impossible task, but here’s what the dad might say: “Son, if you ask me to get you a bike and teach you to ride, you’ve got to believe I can do it.”
God can answer our prayers any way he likes… we confess he knows what is best. But he does want us to believe in him, to trust him, to know he loves us, and to consistently share these things with one another and with an unbelieving world.
“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” “Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.” John 11:21-27