Member-only story
God is Good (Except When He Isn’t)
Faith, Doubt, and the Mystery of Who Gets the Miracle
They kept a journal.
A list of dates with specific petitions made to God.
Requests about sickness, job loss, hunger, sadness.
Praise reports about jobs gained, bonuses, illnesses healed.
This group of adult men and women — all with children.
This group gathered each week to read a lesson from the Bible and to discuss it. They ended each meeting with a prayer. And before the prayer, a list of requests for God. Those requests (and praises) were dutifully recorded in the prayer journal.
In reading through it, you could trace the trajectory of the group’s members. Or, you might see the name of a person who hadn’t been physically present in the church or class in months or years. A reminder to text them. A reminder you’d likely forget before getting to your car to head to lunch.
The purpose of the journal: To offer a way to look back and see where God had moved in the group. But sometimes, I wonder if it reveals more than that — if it quietly catalogs the mystery of the things we don’t understand.
Thinking about this journal reminds me of something I find awkward about many church groups. Hearing…
