The Answer You Didn't Want

You've repeatedly asked God the same question, hoping for a different answer. You've journaled about it, asked three friends for advice, and scrolled TikTok to find confirmation. But no matter how much you want a different answer, you can't help but think God's answer is the one you don't want to hear.

At Thanksgiving, we gathered in the kitchen, joined hands, bowed our heads, and prayed. But I wondered, "What's the point of praying together if most of us don't believe in Jesus?"

When one of my friends died, his wife prayed for three days that God would raise him from the dead. She reasoned that Jesus loved him and loved her, so his death could be reversed. His funeral was heavy with the burden of unanswered prayers.

We prayed and prayed for his healing. He was young, healthy, married with children, and actively serving the Lord as a campus minister. Despite his total dedication to the Lord, he got cancer and died. When I got the news, I knew I should feel hope, but I mainly felt punched in the gut.

On December 3, 2017, Ravi Zacharias published a series of audacious lies in Christianity Today to avoid accountability for inflating his resume and abusing a woman. Ironically, he stated, "I promised to leave no stone unturned in my pursuit of truth." Zacharias was willing to destroy the truth to protect his platform. But he had no idea that journalists, investigators, and whistleblowers would eventually leave no stone unturned and their pursuit of truth would reveal his many decades of abuse to the world.