The Unanswerable Why

One of my tasks every Monday morning is to compile the Prayer Requests and send it out to all on our parish prayer chain. Dealing with all of the tragedy each week is humbling. Our cancer list keeps growing – just yesterday two parishioners called to report this diagnosis and asked to be placed on the list – one parishioner called to report that her friend lost her 16-year-old daughter and 14-year-old son in an auto accident; others call with an assortment of requests, all placing their faith and trust in our mysterious God. And we ask why…and we ask why…and there is no answer. And others laugh – laugh at this faith that instructs us to “ask, seek, knock…” (Matt 7:7) Experiencing the cross can have 2 effects: it may challenge our faith, or it may strengthen us to depend even more fully on the goodness of God, experienced through prayer, and through the body of Christ – the kindness and generosity of our friends and faith community. May you be one for whom the disruptions of life prove to be fertile ground for an explosion of growth of our most precious and vulnerable faith. And may you be a witness of this for all who need strong friends to carry them when their own faith falters.