Unanswered Questions: A Link-Up in "Pages in Our Heritage of Faith"

There are times when, no matter how "hard" you pray, it seems as if your prayers go unheard, unanswered. We know in our heads that's not the case. He ALWAYS hears, ALWAYS answers. But when the answer is, "Wait" or "Just Hold on to Me" or "Just trust," it can seem like no answer because nothing "moved." Nothing "changed." And our hearts question what our head "knows." 


I've mentioned before that Hannah was not a very happy baby. She screamed. A LOT! For months! Nothing helped. Nothing. We were rookies. People offered lots of advice for what helped with their babies. Didn't help. She wanted to be held and entertained and she didn't want to sleep. We were stressed. Bewildered. Sleep deprived. Glassy eyed. 


Kregg had started a new job while we were expecting her. It required LOTS and LOTS of hours. Then he would come home to a screaming baby and a flustered, exhausted wife. So much fun. 


During this season, he developed some serious pains in his midsection. His doctor wasn't really sure, but guessed reflux. The medicine didn't help. 


Another doctor.


The same guess.


The same treatment.


The same results.


Lots of pain. No real answers.


A screaming baby.


It started affecting his ability to sleep. It started affecting his job. We prayed and prayed. After months and months, there seemed to be no answer. It began to be scary. Why was the medicine not helping? What if it was something else? Something serious? Why could no one help? Why did the doctors just have to guess?


Pain + Fear +Stress + No Answers + Lack of sleep, added up to depression.


We really didn't know what to do. It was a long, dark tunnel. And we didn't know if it would ever end. We felt alone. We were scared. But He stayed beside us. He helped us keep going.


I'd like to say there was a miraculous answer and healing.


That's not what happened. 


We learned to cope. 


And to keep on going. 


Even through the fear and the depression. My precious husband just kept going. He would get up and go to work, even if he hadn't slept. Even if the pain was excruciating. He faithfully did his best to do his best in all the areas of his life. But, he felt like a failure. 


We both cried a lot during that season. 


There would sometimes be weeks at a time when he would be free of pain. And that was wonderful. But always in the back of his mind was the question, "When will it come back?" 


And it always did. 


We felt like we were holding our breaths, simply waiting for the next wave to crash over our heads. 


For eight long years, the tide of it all would ebb and flow, with no real answers to what it was or why it wouldn't stop. Eight years of questions. Eight years of waiting. Eight years of holding our breaths.


Finally, the Lord moved on our behalf. A friend of Kregg's he had known years before was talking to my mother in law. She mentioned Kregg's problem. This man just happened to be able to get Kregg in with the head of the gastroenterology department at Scott and White Medical Center in Temple, Texas.


We were scared to hope.


But we went.


We met the doctor. He personally ran tests on Kregg. Within 36 hours of arriving there, he said this, "In all my years of practicing medicine, you are only the second person I've ever seen who has this combination of conditions."


Kregg had two different medical conditions that contraindicated each other! The medicine for one problem aggravated the other problem and visa versa. That's why none of the regular doctors he had seen over all those years was able to help us. That's why the medicine didn't help. 


The new medicine he prescribed actually had nothing to do with the actual condition, but helped anyway without interfering with the second problem. 


It didn't fix things. There's still pain. But it's better. And just knowing what it really was relieved so much of the fear and stress. We would like for it to have been "fixed." But 23 years later, we can say that God is Faithful. He never left us. He never ignored us. And just because He didn't "fix" things doesn't mean He didn't answer our prayers. He did answer. And there is a reason why He answered the way He did, when He did. We don't have to understand. We stand in Faith because He IS Faithful. And we are okay not knowing all the answers. It's enough to know that "and we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose."


In ALL things. Not somethings. Not sometimes. Always. In everything. Even when it makes no sense from our perspective.

Now it's your turn. How has He shown Himself Faithful to you? To your family? As always, it can be old or new, "big" or "little." Don't think you have to share some "parting of the Red Sea" story. It's all a testimony that brings Him Glory when we see His Hand move on our behalf. Grab the button on the right sidebar if you like and add it to your post so others can read what He has done. Your testimony is a blessing to us. Thank you!