Trusting God’s Good Story

M. Night Shyamalan’s movie, SIGNS, was on TV the other night and I found myself re-entering a story I had seen years ago. It’s about an Episcopal priest who lives with his two children and his brother in rural Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

When his wife dies tragically, the priest asks people to no longer call him “Father” because he has given up on the faith that once guided his life. He even refuses to ask the blessing before a meal and says, “I’m not wasting one more minute of my life in prayer.”

This fictional priest’s response to his loss is so different from the real life response of a man named Randy Hoyt. Here is his story in his own words:

“Doctors and nurses were doing everything possible for my wife, the mother
of our children, yet I could see the hopelessness in their faces.

Through an emergency C-section during the fifth month of her pregnancy, it
was discovered that the detached placenta had grown through the uterus and
attached itself to her bladder.

Bleeding was so profuse during surgery that Kris was given 30 units of blood.
As the night wore on, her battle for life became desperate.

I cried out, ‘God what do you want? I know you can heal her; why don’t you?’
In the middle of my darkest night, God began to speak. I wanted a miracle.
He wanted to discuss his nature.

‘Do you believe I am a loving God?’, the Spirit asked. Sitting beside my wife’s
bed, amid the chaos of the ICU, I needed to answer that question.

I could have said, ‘No, God cannot be a loving God. Look around here. My
wife is dying. My newborn daughter may die. I have to go home and tell my
six children that their mother will not come home again…ever.

But that night God gave me the grace to see him as he is. ‘Yes,’ I told him.
‘You are a good God. No matter what happens here tonight, I will not question
your nature.’

Kris’ condition worsened. Kris understood that all life is precious and was
determined to give our child all she had to help her struggle to live. In the end,
it cost Kris her life. Little Grace lived 16 days.

‘What about our plans, God?’, I asked. ‘Who will teach the kids, guide them,
and love them like their mother?’

God spoke to a friend and he headed up an effort which became known as
HELP BRING HOPE TO THE HOYT KIDS. In six months, hundreds of people
worked, sent money, donated supplies, and poured love into our family.

Churches provided food daily and I received 500 letters from people who
said they were praying for us.

I am writing this in the house God has given us. The medical bills are gone.
The house is paid for. I am working and my children are doing well in school.

One night I lay awake tormented with the memory of Kris fighting for her life.
I tried to remember her with the light of life in her eyes, but all I could see
was death.

I could feel myself falling into depression when suddenly before me was a
vision of Kris, so perfectly alive in Christ, shining and healthy. No pain, just
pure joy on her face.

‘See her as she is now,’ the Holy Spirit seemed to say. ‘She is alive.’ Someday
we’ll all be together with Jesus and our little daughter Grace.

I asked God for the life of my wife; I received instead a lesson on the nature
of God. God is good… Armed with that knowledge, I have no fear for today
or for the future. God will be enough for any situation.”

Two men; a fictional character named Father Graham Hess and a real widower named
Randy Hoyt. Both suffer the same loss; only one accepts it as part of a larger, more
complete, more perfect plan.

In each of our lives there will come times when disappointment, doubt, failure, pain, and suffering will make it particularly hard to walk by faith.This was certainly true in the life of the Apostle Paul.

Making the best of bad situations, Paul, with the help of scribes, scribbled words on a bit of parchment. Those words, those letters, became much of what we call the New Testament.

Remember Paul when life throws you a detour. Much of the New Testament was written
from a jail cell. If it had not been for Paul’s hardship, we would be the poorer for it.

It all boils down to one thing; we either believe in a Story much larger than our own,
or we don’t. We can either put all our eggs in our tiny little three score and ten, or we
can invest them in something that is much grander and far more important.

Dedicate your little story to God’s Bigger Story regardless as to how your little story unfolds. Have a faith that is eternal and not temporal trusting that a good God is writing a good story
with a good ending.

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