A Day of Encouragement

Sometimes, you want to ask God for something but it seems so... ridiculous. As in, this-is-an-impossible-request-i'm-crazy-to-want-it ridiculous. And so you start criticizing yourself for being childish and unrealistic.

But crazy as it was, here I was making my childlike, very specific request to my Father. This is how the story goes...

Med school, semester 2. 

Marriage, semester 2. 

Hubs and I were going through a lonely phase. I'll admit, just because you're married to your best friend doesn't mean loneliness be gone forever. Sometimes it's even lonelier than single-hood because he can't hang out as freely with his guys, and I can't hang out as freely with my girls.

So we were craving married couple friends with whom we could relate, hang out, and keep each other accountable in our marriages and walks with God. All of our college friends who were married were, unfortunately, not in Philadelphia.
(Side note: not that we don't like our non-married friends, especially our Cornell-in-Philly crew! How could we have survived this year without you?? We're so blessed that you're with us!)

One Sunday morning, I blurted out to Hubs, "You know what I'm gonna pray for? That next year, we'll find a married couple friend, and she'll be in med school, and he'll be a seminary student!" Of course we both laughed at the absurdity of this request.

It became our "joke of the week". Each day I'd add an amendment to my statement. "Babe, I'm gonna ask for a married couple friend where the girl goes to MY school, and the guy goes to YOURS!" And when our neighbor moved out, "I bet the married couple friend I prayed for will move in upstairs!" Ok, so I went a little overboard. But for some reason, these silly requests stuck in my heart, and I couldn't shake it off.

So secretly, timidly, I started praying for this request every once in a while. That we would become friends with another couple who shared our faith in God, and had similar visions. But after a few weeks, my adult mind - which operated with logic, cynicism, and doubt - smacked down the prayers that my childlike heart had been whispering.

Fast forward to last week. Incoming first years start moving in. I have some anatomy textbooks to sell. I post on their Facebook class page. First person to email. She asks if I can spare some time to chat with her when we meet to exchange books & money, because she's a newlywed and has some questions about life in med school. Married? So am I! Oh, and she commutes. So do I! (Commuters are rare at my school.) For a minute, I wondered if she was a Christian. But how does married + commute = Christian? I laughed at my own desperateness.

I met her yesterday. Not long into our conversation, my hunch started creeping back. Is she?? I asked, of all things, the name of her college...and I recognized it - the name of a Christian college! Finally, an excuse to ask the question that had been burning on my tongue: "Are you a Christian?" YES!

That in itself was amazing. But then she added, as if acting on a hunch of her own, "And actually, my husband will be starting seminary this fall at --"

"WESTMINSTER???" I interrupted. She paused, and nodded. I practically shouted, "No! Way! What?? MY HUSBAND TOO!!"

Shocked. Chilled. Amazed. We both sat there, staring at each other with our mouths agape. And then the barrage of words, babbling, laughter. I'd prayed for you, but I'd totally forgotten about my "silly" prayer. She'd called her mom, saying that God brought me into her life, to encourage them as they adjust to all their big changes. Our prayers were so feeble, laced with worry and second-guesses, but they were heard by a big God who loves to encourage and bless His children with things we don't deserve.

I learned a lesson that day. One, maybe I shouldn't "joke" about prayers. Because Two, they could actually come true. Three, never doubt that something is impossible for God. If He wills, and in His time, He can answer.

What amazing encouragement from the Lord!