How God Allows Us to be Lights in the Valley of the Shadow
by @bethvogt
A friend’s 16-year-old son fought for his life last week.
Ten days ago, Schafer was diagnosed with Influenza A. He developed a secondary bacterial infection and within two days of his initial diagnosis he was taken by Flight for Life to Children’s Hospital in Denver where a team of medical providers battled to save his life with the best of modern medical technology.
Consider words like strep. Toxic shock syndrome. Sepsis. Respiratory failure. Kidney failure. Heart failure.
Schafer walked in the valley of the shadow of death.
And yes, God was with him.
His family – parents, brothers, aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins – is a family of faith. And from the first, they put their hope and trust in God, even as tears soaked their prayers. Weeping indicates pain and sorrow, not a lack of faith.
As Schafer walked in the valley of the shadow, the light showed up.
Friends took over first one waiting room at Children’s Hospital. And then they needed a larger one. A FB page community for updates is 3300+ members strong. A Meal Train is set up so the family doesn’t have to think, “What will we eat?” Hey, with four teen boys, it’s a legit question. And a GoFundMe page provides increasing monetary support for the financial needs the family faces as Schafer faces weeks – more likely months – of recovery.
But the brightest light in this valley?
The prayer warriors.
Prayer is not a tangible thing, like a hug or a video message or a warm meal or even cash pulled from checking accounts and piggy banks.
Prayer can be silent or spoken aloud or scrawled in a journal. The words can be whispered when we’re alone or when we’re circling a hospital bed, unable to fathom all of the tubes and all of the monitors and all of the how-did-this-happen questions bombarding our minds even as we cover a 16-year-old with the spiritual benediction of seek, ask, trust, and release . . .
But prayer is always, always powerful.
And prayer lights the darkness.
Psalm 23 tells us that God, our shepherd, walks with us in dark valleys . . . in the darkest of valleys where death’s shadow hovers.
There is no greater comfort than that.
God allows us to be light in the times of such darkness. When we pray with belief. And hope. And confidence. And trust.Not expecting anything of God except that He be God . . . that He be whom He has said he would be.
Available.
Faithful.
Compassionate.
Merciful.
In the early hours of not knowing how their son’s story would go, Schafer’s parents yielded and entrusted him to God. As they prayed, they balanced on the tightrope between hoping and grieving. Their faith kept them from falling.
And the prayers of others held them steady. Schafer has been constantly surrounded by prayer for the past 10 days. His time in the valley of shadow was lit by hundreds, even thousands, of prayers all around the world uttered by family members and friends and friends of friends and even strangers who heard of the need and responded.
Such is the power of prayer.
The Power of #Prayer When Life Hangs in the Balance http://bit.ly/2D2ILrB #faith Share on X 'Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble. But since the power of prayer is in the one who hears it and not the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference.' #quote by @MaxLucado http://bit.ly/2D2ILrB #prayer Share on X
Comments 8
Love this, Beth. And we are praying.
If voices do not rise in prayer,
they may as well be stilled,
for if we don’t our brothers bear
it’s better we are killed.
In God’s vast tapestry
we’ve golden thread of grace;
to use it’s in our pedigree,
privileged to see God’s face.
We cannot sit in indolence
when crisis overcomes
the walls raised in our defense;
we can’t sit on our thumbs.
Prayers aren’t virtue, but are debts
to the warp and woof that God begets.
Author
Oh, Andrew: You’ve captured you the value — and the valor — of prayer so beautifully. Thank you, friend. And thank you for praying.
Beautifully said. How often do we hear people say “I’ll pray for you. It’s the least I can do,” when in reality it is the most. Prayers lifted for Schafer and his family.
Author
Yes, prayer is the most we can do for another person. I’ve learned to pray right away for someone else. Then I don’t forget to keep praying for them. Thank you, Lori, for praying for Schafer and his family.
It has been beautiful to watch this surrounding prayer phalanx unfold, and we won’t stop until he is well, restored, and wonderfully empowered by God’s interventions and the love poured out in these days.
Author
Dee: The prayer empowered the miracle God has wrought in Schafer’s life. Thank you for being one of the lights in the valley of the shadow, friend.
Beth, yes. Prayer is powerful. It’s hard for our eyes to see beyond the whispered words, the thought-prayers, but God hears. He listens. He acts. I’m continuing to pray for Schafer and his family.
Author
Thank you for praying, Jeanne.