Don’t pray away. Such an interesting concept. Do we typically ask God, well let’s be real, plead to God to take this pain, this obstacle, this situation away. Rather than consider that God may be teaching us to hold onto hope, faith, acceptance, maybe even build a bit of perseverance, so that when this comes up again, and I’m sure it will, we will be better equipped to walk through it? Maybe He wants us to help someone else navigate an illness or a loss of a child or a messy divorce or who knows what? I can only speculate but golly, there have been too many times I wanted to get out, instead of getting through!

Take for instance my illustrious backpacking treks; the ones that always have some sort of pain, suffering and agony attached to them. Seriously, there is not a single trail that I have hiked that didn’t have some component to it that made me second guess my love for long-distance hiking. The Pacific Crest Trail was over five months and the last 200-300 miles was nothing but glorious rain and snow, in mid-September. Then the illustrious Appalachian Trail had much more mud, muck and rocks than I had signed up for! I kid you not, I was asking God why in the world and who was I to testify to? This sucks! Yet when I look back at these arduous months, the endless ribbons of dirt, I can assure you that the Lord was walking me through it daily! I seldom felt lonely or even scared, as most people seem to think a solo hiker would feel. At the end of each journey, I never said, “Lord why did you take me through that?” Rather I thank Him for each skinned knee, twisted ankle, punctured knee, and all the Poison Oak that I found along the way. Well, maybe not in regards to Poison Oak. That stuff is miserable!

In the end, I want to make sure I experience every bit of pain, suffering and discomfort that is needed for me to appreciate what is to come. Think of what you are experiencing right now, at this moment. Is there a purpose for it, is there a chance that instead of fighting it, you can lean into it? As Jesus was questioned in John 9 regarding the blind man, “Who sinned, this man or his parents?” Jesus set the record straight by saying what really was in play. “This happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” Isn’t that beautiful! I can only hope that as I am walking in whatever this world throws at me, instead of praying my way out of it, maybe I can redirect my prayers and ask God to walk me through it.

“The primary purpose of prayer is not to change circumstances; the primary purpose of prayer is to change us!” Mark Batterson author of Draw the Circle