Pray.

Last week I received the news that yet another one of my aunts had breast cancer. 

God, again?! Didn't we just do this? I'm so sick of this! I'm so sick of getting these phone calls that make me so sad and angry...then I get to drag out my 'give this to You' prayer all over again. I'm really tired of talking to You about cancer.  (By the way, I believe God was 100% okay with this prayer. See most of the Book of Psalms. Anyway, I thought I had the 'cancer prayer' down to an art.) 

God, I asked, Be with my aunt. Give her peace.

Pause. 

I wanted to say, Make her better and Give her strength. But all I could think about was the fact that I feel the most peace...when I pray. 

Dear God, help my aunt to PRAY. 

For all intents and purposes, she might as well have not even had cancer. I didn't think about cancer for the rest of the day. All I could think about was her relationship with her Father and the unsurmountable peace she would find in just talking to Him.

I firmly believe prayer is a spiritual discipline created for man to move towards God, not for God to move on behalf of man. He can, He does, miracles do happen and yes, prayer can be a powerful weapon. Want to meet a truly amazing prayer warrior? Let me introduce you to my Mama sometime. But even she will tell you that when she prays, the one who feels the first fruits is her. Prayer has a funny way of showing us who God is and, more importantly, who we are in relation. Our identity, our purpose, our reason for being can be found in that simple realization that we are great sinners and Christ is a great Savior. (Citation nod to John Newton).

I said in Eat that food is a God thing; I want to humbly suggest that prayer is a human thing - God is not the primary beneficiary. In Genesis 18, Abraham intercedes for the city of Sodom, home of his nephew, Lot. I always get a kick out of the first verse of that story, v. 18, which tells us that the angels left...to rescue Lot. Abraham hasn't even prayed for anything yet, and God is 1) already starting the rescue mission and 2) still ready and willing for a conversation with a worried uncle. Abraham talks for a good 11 verses and which God makes all kinds of concessions about saving Lot's city, but in the next chapter, both Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed. Levelled. Removed from history. Lot is saved, but the city is destroyed. Archaeologists are still looking for it. Now, God did not ignore Abraham's prayer here. God kept His word; He told Abraham he would save the cities if there were ten believers there, but there were not ten to be found. Not even ten believers? Abraham wasn't asking much; in fact, he never prayed that Lot be saved, but God saved him anyway. So, if we're re-capping, after 11 verses of prayer, God keeps His bargain with Abraham by destroying Sodom, which Abraham didn't want, and He saves Lot, which Abraham didn't ask for. Now, if you're anything like Casey Schu, you're looking back over those 11 verses wondering, What good did this conversation do?! 

Answer: It got Abraham talking to his Father. Chapter 19 diverts to Lot's story, but we see in Chapter 21 that Abraham and his wife Sarah eventually have a son in their old age. I want to suggest to you that those 11 verses of pleading and begging for the salvation of Sodom were a brick, if not the capstone, of the strong, stable bridge of communication that fuels Abraham's trusting relationship with God. That trusting relationship will continue to grow until the day God asks the ultimate sacrifice of Abraham: his only son, Isaac.

Sometimes, and I have to be careful saying this, but sometimes, cancer is a lot like the city of Sodom.