if you want to see a place which is truly doing the work of God, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is that place. though, in fact, it is not religiously affiliated.
if you don't know St. Jude treats children suffering from childhood cancer not dependent on their race, creed, or ability to pay. the hospital takes care of all fees from the treatment itself to the housing of the family while their child is being treated.
it's a remarkable place.
there are so many amazing stories that i could tell of my trip there but instead i just have one that stuck out the most to me. and which i think very easily applies to the Christian lifestyle.
a father of little girl named Mia, who was diagnosed with a cancer by a very big name and for which i couldn't even begin to spell, at the age of 9 was posed with the question: where do you get your strength?
he proceeded to tell of us a story that went something like this:
"we were sitting on the couch one day just watching tv and i turned to her and asked her 'are you ever scared?' and she looked at me and said 'no.' well i wasn't really expecting that so i asked her, 'why not?' and she said to me, 'cuz you told me everything would be all right.' i knew from then on that i had to do it for her."
what an immense faith this 9 year old girl had in her father.
what if we had such a great faith in our Father in Heaven in the face of our trials as little Mia did with her father?
and she's not the only child who is facing these trials and having great faith. no, all these children aren't set firmly in the faith of God but some do and some just have an unwavering faith in
something else - whether it be the doctors, their parents, another god, or just their own strength.
they are strong children. but they're not always strong. sometimes they cry, sometimes they question, sometimes
they curse the world that they've been sent to live in. but the truly faithful never stop believing in those people who
they know are there to save them.
in the same way, we as Christians should never stop believing in the Lord and what he has promised us. He never
promised it would be easy and never promised we would not face trials and tribulations. so yes we may cry out, we
may question, and we may curse this world that we've been sent to live in but we can never stop believing in Him.
there are many instances of this faith in face of trials in the Bible. Paul, Job, the writer in Ecclesiastes, and even
Jesus himself when he implores to the Lord in Matthew 27:46, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"
a true test in our faith is that we still believe even when God is not outwardly good to us in this life. because it is important to remember that he has promised us greater rewards in the next life, the true life. and he has promised that he will be with us always in Matthew 28:20, "Be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
in the end - the bad that happens in this life will be nothing compared to the promise we have in the next life. we have this promise in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, "Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are quite small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us an immeasurably great glory that will last forever! So we don't look at the troubles we can see right now; rather, we look forward to what we have not yet seen. For the troubles we see will soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever."
i can't ever get those children of St. Jude and their families off my mind and heart. i pray for them, for the researchers, doctors, and the many contributors that make the hospital capable of doing what it does each and every day. not many hospitals can do what St. Jude does - providing free care that costs them approximately $1.4 million a day and raising survival rates of cancers such as ALL from 4% to 94%. it's an amazing place and i pray that founder Danny Thomas' dream to one day throw the key into the river because there is no more need for the hospital will someday come true.
save those kids!
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