Even If He Does Not

I want to introduce you to someone. His name is Emmett and he was a classmate of Tiffany's at Furman and a fellow percussionist. He was a year behind her and one of her closer friends. They've stayed in touch off and on through the years and his spiritual challenging and wide-open gear he approaches life has made him a unique influence in her life. He married the love of his life and after a tragic loss of their premature daughter a few years back, they have a cute little boy who's about 3 or so.



Emmett has been living his dream in Nashville as a percussionist and on Valentine's Day he and his wife found themselves at the hospital when he couldn't stop vomiting. He was released only to find himself back in the emergency room two days later with the same symptoms. He was admitted, tested, and to the shock of all, including the doctors, was diagnosed with a very large cancerous tumor in his throat. After more testing, cancer was discovered in his liver and abdomen and determined to be stage 4.

Emmett isn't 30 years old yet and as you can imagine his life changed in an instant. The prognosis isn't good, yet they're gearing for a literal life and death battle. The reason I want you to meet him is two-fold. One, so you can be praying for this sweet family and two, so you can see a picture of God's grace.

He started a blog he titled "Courage to Conquer" and if you click here you can follow their story. A couple of times now, they've talked about God's redemption and how we as humans want to be redeemed from our circumstances even as we forget the ultimate price that He paid. But today's entry really made me stop and think and I wanted to share part of it with you.

Don't get me wrong, we are totally jazzed for the fight. We're ready to pour our hearts into praying and living and hoping and fighting. But there is a comfort in knowing how fully you rest in the hands of God. He has already redeemed our souls through Christ's death on the cross, so redeeming Emmett's body is a small thing to him. We pray with every breath that he will choose to glorify himself through Emmett's healing, and we plan to pursue that in our lives. But even if God doesn't heal Emmett, even if God chooses to take Emmett sooner than I want him to, he is still a wonderful and merciful God. I am reminded of the words of three young men in the Bible who were faced with death:

Daniel 3: 16-18

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."

"Even if he does not". How many times have I lashed out at God for not changing something I don't like in my circumstances? More times than I want to admit. Yet, here is a young family choosing to trust God in their hardest battle yet and encouraging others along the way. I am humbled.