"The Others"

I just got back from a Baccalaureate service (church service for High School seniors) in the town next to ours.  Two of the Mt Whitney choral groups sang for it.  We also had a duet by one of our students and our teacher.  She (they) sang a song called "Blessings" by Laura Story.  I blogged about that song a few weeks ago. 
The speaker was Melchor Carrillo, the choral director from Redwood High School.  He did an amazing job!  His title was "The Others".  It was taken from Hebrews 11.  The first part of the chapter talks about the great heroes of the faith, who raised people from the dead, saw the walls of Jericho fall down, had babies at over 90 years old, etc.  Those are the kinds of stories we like.  Then, toward the end of the chapter we read about "the others"... those who were not success stories.  The Christian life is not always success and glory. 

 " ...There were those who, under torture, refused to give in and go free, preferring something better: resurrection. Others braved abuse and whips, and, yes, chains and dungeons. We have stories of those who were stoned, sawed in two, murdered in cold blood; stories of vagrants wandering the earth in animal skins, homeless, friendless, powerless—the world didn't deserve them!—making their way as best they could on the cruel edges of the world.
 ^39-40Not one of these people, even though their lives of faith were exemplary, got their hands on what was promised. God had a better plan for us: that their faith and our faith would come together to make one completed whole, their lives of faith not complete apart from ours"  Hebrews 11:32-38

In and through all these things we must continue to trust in the wisdom and perspective of God, who sees all things, knows all things, and  - even though it doesn't look like it, loves us.
I must go back to the lyrics of the song that was sung tonight:

"We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plead
And long that we'd have faith to believe

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know the pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise."

-Laura Story