What do you do when you see a good friend writhing on the ground in pain? What do you do when you cry out to God, and He seemingly doesn’t hear?
Yesterday marked the end of our ministry in the Philippines. To celebrate we took a squad trip to a local beach to enjoy some fun in the sun. The day was beautiful, the scenery gorgeous, the friendship good. A great day to end a great month right…?
Halfway through the day though, my squadmate Mike began to feel pain from his reoccurring kidney stones. This was the third attack in the last week. It typically is years between attacks. He laid in pain for the majority of the afternoon. I walked by him several times. I never prayed for him. I never asked if there was anything I could do for him.
The sun finally set and darkness began to set in. We began packing up our things to head back home. As I was taking the cooler back to the bus, someone said, “hey lets go pray for Mike real quick.” My heart stung. “Yeah, we should go do that,” I replied.
Soon enough the entire squad surrounded Mike and began praying. Praying for healing. Praying for complete restoration of this man of God. I truly believed that God could, in an instant, miraculously heal Mike. It didn’t happen. I left the group and went to God, “Why won’t you heal Mike? Do you see how much pain he is in?” In my spirit I felt God reply, “I will, but not yet. Trust that I am good.”
Back at the group, prayer continued. But something began to change. A spirit of repentance began to cover the squad. As we cried out for Mike’s healing, we also cried out in confessions for our sins. Almost every person took their turn confessing and repenting of selfishness, pride, insincerity, and the like. We went to each other and righted the wrongs that we had done or said to each other. For the first time we were truly broken before each other and before God. We were vulnerable, we were honest. Shames hidden in darkness were brought to light, we cared no longer for our reputations or selfish gain. We only cared that our brother Mike would be healed and that God would hear our prayers. We were brought to our knees in humility before the Lord our God. And so we sang. We blessed the Lord. We praised Him. In the good or the bad, in abundance or want, in suffering or peace, God does not change-He is still good. We rejoiced for we are God’s children and nothing will ever change that.
This month the entire squad lived at the same place. We ate together. Slept in the same rooms. We saw each other every day. Yet we found out that night that each of us had isolated ourselves in our own self-centeredness. Amidst our 50 “brothers and sisters” we were as lonely as hell. It took one of our strongest brothers, writhing on the ground in pain before we would take action on the Holy Spirits leading. It took the horrific pain of a extremely fit former personal trainer, before we finally got real with God and each other. Before we finally stopped pretending we cared about each other. Before we finally realized shallow and superficial relationships will never create unity, it will never reach the blessings of how God designed true community.
My heart had truly been heavy about the lack of unity, love, and preference in our squad the entire time in the Philippines. But I did not know what to do except to pray. Well, that night Mike’s pain knitted our squad closer than it had ever been before. As God revealed the depth of my sin, He also comforted me with His truth about His forgiveness on the cross. He also enlarged my heart for each one of my squadmates. And for the first time I truly began to love them. Before I didn’t really want to invest that much. I didn’t really want to fight for community. Now, I desire to live in the same community that changed the world almost 2000 years ago. We are to be a peculiar people, set apart by our love, sacrifice, and humility. Please pray that we would reach this heavenly hope.
*End of Mike’s story*
After about an hour of praying, intercessing, repenting, and singing we decided we were going to walk into this healing. So we helped Mike into the bus and within 2 hours Mike was back to normal. Laughing, joking, smiling, and pain free. I truly believe that this will be the last time he deals with this pain. Please join our prayers for Mike so that we might all rejoice together in Christ for Mike’s healing.
