Dealing With It

I got to see my Mom last Friday!  It wasn’t a visit like the old days, of course.  We had to be outdoors.  We had to be six feet apart.  We had to wear masks.  We could not make any physical contact.  And it could only be for a half hour.  But it was a lot better than the visits we’ve had, where we had to try to visit through a window which was open maybe an inch. 

It was the first time I’d seen my Mom in person, rather than through the window, in about six months.  It was really good to see her, even for a short time.  For ninety-five, she’s doing very well.  She has a few problems, but who doesn’t at ninety-five?  She doesn’t have nearly as many problems as a lot of people her age, for which we are grateful.

The restrictions on visits are frustrating.  I’m not going to get into the merits of wearing masks or social distancing or any of that stuff--what you think is what you think, and I don’t suppose I could change your mind even if I wanted to.  I certainly understand the need to protect a vulnerable population, such as you have in a nursing home.  

But even if you believe the rules are necessary, they’re still frustrating.  I want to give my Mom a hug.  I want to see her whole face, not just the part that’s visible outside the mask.  I want to visit her as long as I want, not just for a half hour.  But that’s not the way it is.  I can like that, or I can not like it, but I have to deal with it, because I can’t do anything about it.

A lot of life is like that--we have things we don’t like, but we have to deal with them, because we can’t do anything about them.  That’s especially been true in the age of COVID.  A lot of people have been praying for God to put an end to this pandemic.  But so far, it has not happened.  We don’t know why not, but it hasn’t.  And so, we have to keep dealing with the pandemic and with all the problems and disruptions it causes.

But you know, that happened in the Bible all the time.  Not a pandemic, specifically, but things happened that people did not like.  And they prayed to God to change them.  And--things did not change.  For example, the Apostle Paul wrote about praying for God to remove an ailment he had, what he called a thorn in his side.  And God did not do it.  So Paul just had to deal with it.

How do you react when you ask God to do something, and God does not do it?  Do you keep praying, hoping God will change His mind?  There’s nothing wrong with that, up to a point.  God may be testing us, making us prove to ourselves that what we’re asking really is what we want.  God may be waiting for the right time to act.  Just because God does not do what we ask right away does not necessarily mean that God is not going to do what we ask.

But at some point, we need to recognize that God has heard our prayer, God has considered our request, and God has said no.  How do we react then?  Do we get upset with God?  Do we doubt God?  Do we give up on God?  Or do we trust that God must have a good reason for saying no, even if we don’t understand what it is?  Can we have faith that God knows better than we do, that God’s plan is better than our plan, and continue to trust God even when what God is doing seems wrong to us?

That’s when we see how real our faith is.  That’s when we see how much we trust God.  When we think that what we’ve asked for is the best, not just for ourselves but for everyone, and God says no, our reaction to that is the test of how we truly feel about God.

It’s fine to keep praying.  But when God says no, may we have the faith to trust that God’s ways are better than our ways.  May we continue to trust God.