10/09/2026
Long but worthy of your time …
I think church culture has taught us how to celebrate the miracle.
And we should.
We shout when the cancer is gone.
We celebrate when the prodigal comes home.
We testify when the impossible prayer is answered.
But I wonder if we have learned to recognize another kind of victory.
The victory of the ones who stayed when the miracle didn’t come.
Somewhere along the way, I think we have often made victory synonymous with getting the outcome we prayed for.
But what about the ones who prayed just as hard?
Believed just as deeply?
Asked.
Knocked.
Waited.
And still buried what they prayed would live.
Still received the diagnosis.
Still watched the situation end completely differently than they prayed.
And somehow,
They came back to church.
They sat in the pew again.
They lifted their hands again.
They sang about the goodness of a God they were still trying to understand.
They listened to someone else testify about the very miracle they themselves had begged God for.
And they stayed.
Scripture gives us language for this.
Hebrews 11 tells us that some, through faith, “escaped the edge of the sword.”
And then, only verses later, others suffered and died.
Same chapter.
Same God.
Same faith.
Different outcomes.
Some experienced grave-avoided faith.
Others had to learn grave-temporary faith.
Grave-avoided faith says:
God can keep death from taking what I love.
Grave-temporary faith says:
Death may have taken what I love, but it does not get to keep what it took.
Of course I would have chosen grave-avoided faith.
Every single time.
Some are now learning what it means to have faith from beside a grave.
And from that perspective I have found that faith doesn’t look like shouting and rejoicing.
Sometimes it looks like crawling.
Sometimes victory isn’t running into the presence of God with an answered prayer.
Victory is fighting tooth and nail to get back into His presence while carrying a question He still hasn’t answered.
Victory is singing when the lyrics hurt.
Victory is hearing someone else’s miracle and refusing to let their answered prayer become evidence that God loved you less.
Victory is simply saying:
“I don’t understand You right now Lord, but I’m still here.”
We love the testimony that ends:
“And God did it!”
But we should learn to recognize the testimony that says:
“It didn’t happen the way I prayed. I still don’t understand why. But I haven’t walked away.”
Because there’s victory in deliverance.
But there’s also victory in endurance.
There is victory when disease disappears.
And there is victory when someone walks through suffering and refuses to surrender their faith.
There is victory when the grave is avoided.
And there is victory when someone stands beside the grave and still believes it’s temporary.
Tell the testimony.
Celebrate the healing.
Rejoice over the answered prayer.
But don’t overlook the person a few seats over who didn’t get theirs and came back anyway.
There’s a testimony sitting there too.
And they may not be shouting yet.
Maybe they’re just crawling.
But they’re still coming.
They’re still believing.
They’re still reaching.
They’re still here.
Sometimes the greatest victory is staying!
So I’m clapping for you today.
I’m shouting for you today.
Yes, you!!!!
The one who still shows up.
The one who refuses to surrender their faith and their hope.
The one who sits in the pew carrying the weight of an outcome opposite of what you prayed for.
The one who has watched someone else receive the very miracle you begged God for, and somehow you still lift your hands.
The testimony of those who stay may not always be the one that brings the congregation to its feet.
But Heaven sees you.
There is One who knows what it has cost you to keep coming back.
He sees every time you choose Him through disappointment.
Every time you worship through questions.
Every time you crawl back into His presence when walking away felt easier.
So keep coming.
Even if you have to crawl.
Faith isn’t just in a miracle.
But for a lot of us, faith looks like surviving the disappointment and still choosing the Miracle Worker.
Staying is a testimony too.
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