"And having done all, to stand"

Lacey died last Sunday. When I spoke to her a few months ago, she told me that she only wanted to hold out until her two children graduated from high school. She missed the first graduation by a week.

I know lots of people who struggle with unanswered prayer, but this one knocked me for a loop. Lacey loved the Lord, did not fear death, and prayed hard for this, I'm sure. I was angry at God, like King David after the Uzzah incident. I thought God had blown his chance to show himself great. I felt like I'd been had by the invitations in the Bible to make our requests known. And I was contemplating the unthinkable again.

My friend David happened to phone and I shared my problem and asked why this had happened. He said he didn't know. And then as we talked more he reminded me that we see only a miniscule portion of what God is up to in the world. He also reminded me to consider what would happen if God were to answer all our prayers, asking, "Where would the faith be?" He said that God's reason for this turn of events may come to light 20 years from now, in one of the kids' lives, for all we know. And he said that while most people don't like to hear it, the truth is that God is more interested in the kind of character we go into heaven with than in anything we could get here.

I said to David (because I always play the devil's advocate), "But doesn't He realize we are dust? Why doesn't He give us a little encouragement?" David firmly said that He does---all day long. And he talked about how it's these very kinds of incidents and perplexities that build our faith---because once we have every prop of understanding removed from under our feet, we have to just trust him. David quoted Ephesians 6:13 by way of substantiation: ". . . and having done all, to stand."

David is an inmate doing 12 to 20 years in a Michigan state prison.

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