I just heard something on the radio that I need to write about.

“If my wife has a headache, I’m quick to lay hands on her because that is not God’s best for her.”

I’m fine with everything before the “because”. If we are sick, troubled, injured — we are disobedient if we fail to ask God for healing. Repeatedly, both directly and indirectly, we see in Scripture that God requires us to pray for each other. We see through Jesus’ earthly ministry that healing is important to Him. He doesn’t ignore the physical needs of His brothers, despite their more glaring spiritual need. He doesn’t tell Lazarus and his grieving family, “Shh, shh; he’s in a better place. Don’t mourn for him!” Our physical, temporal needs matter to God.

This is actually the side of the sentence I struggle with, personally — believing that these little things matter to God. I can write with certainty about how God cares for us now, but tomorrow morning I will wake up tired and headachy and my first thought will be (please don’t judge me) Yeah, I probably deserve this for [fill in the blank with whatever ridiculous thing you can imagine here].

I am a recovering legalist. Like most legalists, I swore I wasn’t legalistic (how many times can I get the same word in the one sentence?) until my legalism jumped up and bit my legalistic keister. Even then, although I realized my error, it took several years to embrace the solution, and it will probably take me several more years before running to Christ is my first thought.

Yes, running to Christ is the answer. When I have a headache, I am to run to Christ. When I am filled to the brim with joy, I am to run to Christ. When I’ve fallen hard because of a puffed up chest and a swollen head, I am to run to Christ. When I’m not sure why I just feel so drained, so irritable, so needy, I must run to Christ.

So what is my problem with the second part of that sentence? Why do I have a problem with “[a headache] is not God’s best for her”?

Here is why I have a problem with it: God’s best is sometimes for us to be trapped in the belly of a whale. God’s best is sometimes for painful boils to cover our skin. God’s best was to leave a thorn in the Apostle Paul’s flesh. God’s best for Moses was to send him, a helpless infant, floating down a river.

God’s best for Jesus was to send Him to the cross. Make no mistake, this was God’s best because for the joy set before Him, He endured the cross (Heb 12:12).

So tell me again, is a headache not also for the glory of God? At the very least, a headache is an invitation to come to God as the needy children we are, to ask Him for the help we need more than we even dare to realize. But more than this, our suffering and our pain and our illnesses could very well be God’s best for us because in them and through them He is telling a greater story.

Pray for relief. Pray for healing. Don’t doubt that God can and will do what is best for you. But leave room for God’s best to come in ways that might be unpleasant or even painful. The God who saw fit for His only Son to gasp for the oxygen of His presence may very well ask you to join with Him in suffering. And nothing will be sweeter to you, Christian, who long to know Him.

He’s not a time lion. But he is good.