Step 3: Enlarge your perspective.
A pastor friend of mine grew up on a farm in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the 1950s. It was a quiet, rural area with great distances between family farms, but the neighbors were friendly, and everyone knew each other by name. His closest neighbors had several children. The youngest, Bobby, was age 5 when the following events transpired.
From an early age Bobby was difficult. As an infant, he was inconsolable. As a toddler, he would frequently throw tantrums and, as a child, he was out of control. When told to pick up his toys, he didn’t or did so with back talk. He was frequently caught stealing cookies or candy between meals, and he often took toys that were not his. He was instructed repeatedly by his parents to never ever play around the farm equipment. They even threatened him with spanking if they ever caught him near the dangerous machinery, which they had to enforce on more than one occasion. But Bobby was an unruly, disobedient child.
One day my friend received word while working in the fields that “Bobby has been injured. The neighbors are asking that we come and pray for him.” Bobby had been playing around the farm equipment and sustained serious, life-threatening injuries. In the 1950s in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula there was no 911 to call, no Life Force helicopter to swoop down from the sky, no emergency responders waiting close by. So the family did the only thing they knew how to do: They called their neighbors, formed a prayer circle around Bobby and asked for God’s intervention.
My friend told me of his vivid memory of that day. One by one, neighbor after neighbor prayed for Bobby with prayers that went something like this: “Lord, Bobby is hurt. His life is hanging in the balance. We know You can heal, You can restore, You can save his life. We come to You humbly now and ask that if it be Your will, please restore Bobby to health.”
Prayer after prayer ended just like that. “If it be Your will, Your will be done.”
Then it was time for Bobby’s mother to pray. She said simply, “God, I don’t care what Your will is. If You don’t heal my son, I will never speak to You again.”
