Hokies down the Huskies in last seconds!

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Torticollis – learning hard lessons

During Adelyn’s suffering with torticollis earlier this week, I prayed with her and asked the Lord to bring relief and healing to her neck. While talking to Carolyn on the phone during one of her atrocious spasms today, I heard Adelyn scrying (scream-crying) in the background, “Why is God doing this to me???!!!!”

It broke my heart.

The immensity of what I’d done by praying with her and for her struck me as I hung up the phone. In a moment of extreme suffering and pain, Adelyn was learning a hard lesson. God does not always relieve our suffering at the moment we want Him to. Sometimes the relief does not come at all.

I was also learning a hard lesson. When you pray hard and fervently with someone for their suffering, you are making them aware of your own faith and desires in the matter. When God does not answer quickly… What does that mean?

What it meant for Adelyn was that God had left her to suffer. Her 5th grade brain (and my 41 year-old gray matter) have a very difficult time processing that. Some would nod their heads and say that is why they doubt God’s goodness or even His existence.

Our reasoning goes something like this… The innocent suffer atrociously. The God of the Bible is supposed to be all-powerful and all-loving. If He permits such suffering and evil, He cannot be all-powerful, or He is not all-loving. Or as some conclude, He is… not.

On Thursday morning, as Adelyn began to have a better day, Blacksburg learned of a double homicide involving two Virginia Tech students. One campus… 35 deaths in the past two years. 32 of those occurred in one day that is branded in Hokie memory forever – April 16, 2007. On a national level, Americans speak of 9/11. As a Hokie nation, we’ve heard 4/16 spoken of in reverent terms. It altered the corporate consciousness of a campus… and a community.

Again, it begs the question of God… why?

I attended a campus worship service hosted by Cru on Thursday night with almost 1000 students. Many were dramatically affected by the deaths. Others were numb or disconnected. Yet the large gathering ended the evening in heart-felt worship.

One of the songs they sang was “Blessed Be the Name of the Lord.” It’s a rather profound chorus:

You give and take away

You give and take away

My heart will choose to say

Blessed be Your Name

All these reflections have been bouncing in my brain since Adelyn’s agonizing cry Wednesday.

As a father, I did for Adelyn on Wednesday what I did for her on Tuesday. I prayed. It was the same thing I did last night in a room packed full of confused collegians.

I read Psalm 56.3 this morning and cling to it as a life preserver:

“When I am afraid, I will trust in You.”

I just will.

My best advice? Don’t give up looking for answers, even if they are hidden at present. Those who continue seeking with an honest heart will find. Your discovery may not be “the” answer you started looking for; rather, you may uncover greater treasure in your quest – wisdom.

For Adelyn, she was eating Ramen Noodles Friday night with a sore neck. There were no more agonizing screams, but their memory and her experience will continue to teach my family some hard lessons.

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Prayer for campus ministries

I just moved from a town in which the college campus there didn’t play as huge a roll in the town as it could or should have. It wasn’t the fault of the campus at all. Many times, it felt like the campus was ignored by local residents. The town itself didn’t offer the college students much in the way of entertainment or hang out spots, enabling a few enterprising businesses to work around the dry country status by securing a liquor license for their restaurant. Other businesses that served the student population seemed to be the cell phone stores, movie theater and fast food joints.

We’ve moved to Blacksburg, Virginia, which according to the 2000 census, had 39,573 people in it. More than 20,000 of those were students attending Virginia Tech. Both Blacksburg and VT have grown since then. You cannot ignore the campus here. We have yet to experience football season, but locals assure me that on those home game weekends, you better know the back roads if you want to get to the store. VT is a massive presence here, rich in heritage and tradition.

I love the presence of the campus, but what I love even more is that there are vibrant campus ministries here, just as there were back home. I had the privilege of visiting with a student Monday who is a leader in Cru (Campus Crusade). He shared with me the leadership training process and how every student involved is equipped and expected to share their faith in an authentic, relational way.

In addition, there is the Baptist Collegiate Ministry. It’s near and dear to my heart – not just because I’m great friends with its director, but because I’m also a former BCM director. Its students too are enthusiastic and deeply devoted to making the hope of life in Christ known to students, faculty and staff at Tech.

I wanted to encourage you to drop by their websites and check ‘em out. I expect to meet the other leaders of the dozens of campus ministries at VT in the weeks to come, but I wanted to highlight these two and ask you to begin praying for them as they prepare for a vitally busy few weeks of relationship-building, service and ministry.

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