By Ann Mann
I never thought I would write a sentence like this: Thank God for kidney stones. Really?
I have never had a kidney stone, but I understand they can be excruciatingly painful. I have known people who have had them, and I do not recall a single one saying, “What a blessing!”
So why on earth would we thank God for kidney stones?
Because I have a friend who has bladder cancer. And the only reason doctors discovered the cancer was because he had a kidney stone. The stone caused pain. The pain sent him to the doctor. The doctor ordered a scan. And on that scan, they saw something they were not looking for.
Cancer.
Suddenly, the kidney stone was not the biggest problem. But because of that kidney stone, the bigger problem was discovered. Now the doctors know the cancer is there. Now they can treat it. Now my friend has a chance to beat it.
Had it not been for the kidney stone, the story might have had a very different ending. So, yes, thank God for kidney stones.
I think life is like that sometimes.
Something happens that we absolutely did not want. A door closes. Plans fall apart. The phone rings with unexpected news. Something hurts. Something changes. Something interrupts the life we had carefully planned. And our first response is often, “God, why is this happening?”
There is nothing wrong with asking that question. The Bible is filled with faithful people who asked God why.
But perhaps there is another question worth asking: “God, what might you do with this?”
The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 8:28, “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”
Notice what Paul does not say. He does not say that all things are good.
Cancer is not good. Pain is not good. Grief is not good. Broken relationships, lost jobs, frightening diagnoses and shattered dreams are not things we need to pretend are blessings. Christian faith does not require us to call something good when it hurts.
Instead, Scripture gives us an even greater promise: God is able to work for good in the midst of it. That is grace.
Sometimes we recognize that grace immediately. Other times, it may take months or years before we look backward and realize that God was doing something we could not see at the time.
And sometimes, if we are truthful, we may never understand why something happened.
Faith does not mean having an explanation for everything. Faith means trusting that even when we cannot see the whole road, God is still traveling it with us.
I would never tell someone in the middle of suffering, “Don’t worry. Something good will come from this.” Some wounds are too deep for easy answers. But I will say this: Never underestimate what God can do with a bump in the road.
Sometimes the bump slows us down long enough to notice something we were missing. Sometimes the detour takes us someplace we never intended to go but desperately needed to be. Sometimes the interruption puts the right person in our path.
And sometimes a kidney stone reveals cancer.
John Wesley spoke often about God’s grace at work in our lives before we are even aware of it. We call that prevenient grace, the grace that goes before us.
I love that image. God ahead of us. God beside us. God working in places we cannot yet see.
So, when the next bump in the road comes, and it will, I hope I can remember my friend. I hope I can be honest enough to say, “Lord, I don’t like this. I don’t understand this. And I certainly didn’t ask for this.”
But then perhaps I can add: “Still, I trust you. Show me what I need to see.”
Because every once in a while, something we would never have chosen becomes the very thing that reveals what we desperately needed to know.
And that is why, strange as it sounds, today I am thanking God for kidney stones.
(Ann Mann is an Emmy Award-winning journalist, now serving as pastor to Barnesville First United Methodist Church. You can email her at annmann@comcast.net. Her books, “Hope for the Journey,” and “Finding Hope in the Storm” are available on Amazon.)