Encountering God’s Love in Suffering & SicknessParaugs

“God’s love is unpredictable”

In the early years of our marriage, a small book swept the Christian community. It was The Prayer of Jabez by Bruce Wilkinson. It was one of the fastest-selling books of all time. It was a simple book that found a small verse tucked within the confines of a giant narrative found in 1 Chronicles 4:10: Jabez called upon the God of Israel for blessing, and protection from pain.

Recently, as I remembered this small book that swept the nation, I asked Jason a simple question: What if our story had happened in the time of this book and the gluttonous prosperity of that season? Would we have had a place for our story to reside, or would the winning of that day have shamed us?

I grieve my own thirst for comfort, ease, plenty without pain. I wonder whose story I didn’t hear back then in that Jabez season. I would be lying if I said I still didn’t long for those extended borders in my life and the absence of pain. But what if that prayer was meant for Jabez and simply for Jabez? Maybe the part of the prayer that is meant for each of us is that God’s hand might be with us. And simply that. I am not accusing the prayer of Jabez as being a false, unfair prayer to pray, but I think we should all be honest with our love of that verse. We all wanted more and ease, and we wanted to use God to get it.

But we are not the Author of our story. We are the characters.

* What about the bitterness of unmet expectations, hopes, and dreams? What have you done with the bitter that meets us all?