Have you ever wondered where God is in your life?  Or what he’s doing in your life?  Is He even aware of the hopelessness you may be feeling?

We’ve all been there – whether it’s trying to find a job to support your family, or a cancer diagnosis that defies one treatment after another.  Maybe it’s an addiction you’ve been battling and you have begged – down on your knees kind of beg for Him to help!

Where is He?  Does He see your pain?  What is He waiting for?

Waiting is not my strong suit, folks.  Abraham and Sarah waited decades to have a child.  In their 90’s and beyond God came to them and said they would give birth to the descendant of the Messiah!  Old Abraham and barren Sarah – in the twilight of their years, barely able to comfort each other let alone have sex and nurse children!  So humorous that Sarah laughed at God’s proclamation.  Not a joyful laugh but a cynical, disbelieving kind of laugh.

Have you been there?  Are you there now?  I have a few times.  I have waited 30 years all the while begging God to help me overcome my eating addiction.  I have lost friendships over it, suffered heart blockages and cancer, high blood pressure and diabetes; all of which can be linked back to food and lifestyle.  I prayed, pleaded, cried, and even made deals with God to heal my daughter’s anorexia.  It would be ten years before God would answer that prayer.  For ten years I have been honing my writing in hopes of publishing my book of medical devotionals.  If I thought writing was hard, publishing seems as improbable as me climbing Mount Everest!

As I thought about the story of Abraham and Sarah I wondered –

• Why did God choose to give a descendent of the Messiah to a barren woman with an old husband?
• Why did he choose a young, unmarried virgin with no husband to give birth to the Messiah?
• Why does he allow us to make a mess of our lives or allow problems into our lives and then instead of fixing it, works through those problems and takes his sweet time throughout it?

Because God can bring life where there is no life.

I believe I was not ready to lose the weight because there was a spiritual journey in my soul that needed to take place.  Each and every health event helped shape me, educate me in the field of medicine, and create a mission of mercy and compassion for those battling medical adversity that I would never have developed had it not been for the gift of time.  I believe He is doing a work within me as I use this knowledge to write my blog, and share my stories so that my words may soothe a soul, encourage the fearful, and bring a smile to the downcast.  There is grace in the wait.

God works through our weakness and brokenness to transform us.  Not physically but spiritually.  He uses our pain so that we may see His grace and love for us.  God brings grace into the impossible and because of it we are transformed.  While we cannot believe God can make a difference through the struggles and pain we are reminded of this through the promise of His son.  It is His promise of salvation that brings eternal life out of no life and the relationship with Jesus that gives us the joy through the pain.

God reaches out to us just like He did with Sarah.  It is when we are in pain that we are ripe for God to come to us in his gentle grace.  Wait for it and let it transform you.   It is this promise and power of God that He will make all things new again that turns our cynical laughter into a joyful one.