When God does not remove the hard thing, most of us eventually land on one of two explanations. Either He is not listening, or we did something wrong. This week on the podcast, our guest Brittany Plourde shared something extraordinary in Brittany's story, part three. And I want to write to the person who heard it and felt further away rather than closer.
Because I know you are out there. You have prayed. You are still waiting.
LET ME SAY THE QUIET PART FIRST
You are not doing it wrong.
Brittany got something remarkable, and she would be the first person to tell you it was not a reward for getting her faith correct. She did not earn it. She has said plainly that in 2018 she was nowhere near where she is now.
So if you are sitting there doing the math - she prayed and got an answer, I prayed and got silence, therefore the problem is me - please stop. That equation is wrong at both ends. However common it is, and it is very common, it is simply not how He works.
WHEN GOD DOES NOT REMOVE THE HARD THING, HE IS NOT BEING CARELESS
There is a parable I cannot stop thinking about since Brittany brought it up, and it is the best answer I know to this.
In Matthew 13:24-30, Jesus describes a farmer whose field of good wheat gets weeds sown into it overnight by an enemy. The workers come and ask the obvious question. Do you want us to go pull them out?
And the answer is no. Because the roots are tangled together. Pull the weeds now and you tear up the wheat with them. Let them grow together, He says, until the harvest.
Read that again slowly. The weeds are not there because the farmer did not notice them. He knows exactly where every one of them is. He is choosing not to rip them out yet, and the reason is that doing it now would cost you something good.
BRITTANY'S VERSION OF THIS
When one of her students brought up that same parable, Brittany's response was one sentence: "I'm letting the weeds grow."
I love that, and I want to be clear about what she means. She is not resigned. Nor is she pretending the weeds are fine. What she is saying is that she trusts His timing about what comes out and when.
That is a completely different posture from giving up. Giving up says nothing will change. Letting the weeds grow says He knows, He has a harvest in mind, and I am not going to tear up the field trying to fix it on my own schedule.
WHAT YOU DO GET, EVEN WHEN THE HARD THING STAYS
Now let me tell you what I believe you are actually promised, because I think we get this backwards constantly.
Scripture does not promise the weeds get pulled on your timeline. It does not promise a clean scan, or the job back, or the relationship restored by Christmas. I am not going to stand here and tell you it does.
But look at what Brittany's story actually turns on. It is not the healing. Go back and listen to that episode again if you need to - what changed everything for her that night was not information about her future. It was that she was not alone in that room.
That is the promise. His presence. And unlike every other outcome you and I want, that one is available tonight, in your house, in whatever shape you are in.
SOMETHING TO DO WITH THIS TONIGHT
So here is something practical, and it is small on purpose.
Stop asking only for the weed to be pulled. Keep asking - pray boldly, ask Him for exactly what you want, Brittany does and so should you. But add a second prayer alongside it.
Ask Him to show you where He is in the field with you right now.
Then look for the answer in ordinary places, because that is usually where it turns up. Someone calls at exactly the right hour. A verse lands differently than it did last year. A stretch of unexplained peace turns up in the middle of a week that had no business containing any.
Above all, do not measure His nearness by whether the hard thing moved. Those are two different questions, and we spend years confusing them.
THE HARVEST IS A REAL THING
One last piece of that parable, because it is the hopeful part and it usually gets skipped.
The story does not end with the weeds winning. It ends at a harvest, where the weeds are dealt with completely and the wheat is gathered in. Nevertheless, that is the end of the story, not the middle - and you and I are living in the middle.
So the weeds in your field right now are temporary. They do not get the last word, even when they are the loudest thing in the field. That is not wishful thinking. That is the actual shape of what He told us.
YOU ARE NEVER ALONE
When God does not remove the hard thing, it is not evidence He has left. He is in the field. He knows exactly where every weed is. And He has a harvest in mind that you cannot see from where you are standing.
No matter what you are facing on your journey with cancer or in life, remember this. You are NEVER ALONE. Jesus and the Holy Spirit are always with you and ready to help. All you have to do is ask, give it all to Jesus, and let Him go to work.
And if you do not have a relationship with Jesus - or if yours has gone stale, or weak, or you are just plain angry right now - I would strongly encourage you to visit our Accepting Jesus page. It will walk you through it and give you a prayer you can pray tonight, right where you are.
If you have not heard Brittany's three episodes yet, they are on the podcast now, and I would start at part one. I think you will be very glad you did.
May God bless you, and thank you so much for reading.
Listen to the Podcast - Brittany's Story, Part Three: Faith Without An Ending