I write this Voice article from my kitchen table in my third week of recovery from spinal surgery. There is much gratitude in my heart for this church family and others in the community who have given us meals, cards, flowers, texts, calls, and even rides for our children. We couldn’t have done it without you and we thank you. I have another reason to be thankful and it is for the Lord teaching me some lessons during this whole process and I would like to share them with you.
First, is the lesson of needing greater empathy towards others going through medical problems and issues. Overall, I’m a pretty healthy individual so my time in the hospital is pretty rare. When you are sitting up the night before a surgery, your mind racing, that text message or word of encouragement is really helpful. When you are in the hospital your thoughts go to feelings of missing home and the feelings of ‘woe is me.’ But then a person is wheeled into the room next to you and that person is not even conscious. You realize things could be much worse. For those who must deal with repeated medical issues and hospital stays, now that I have been in your shoes for a time, I hope to have greater empathy.
Second, is the lesson how the Lord is near during our time of weakness. I brought my pocket Bible with me because I wanted to be close to the Psalms. I usually counsel others when they are in times of hardship and stress to go to the Psalms. There is a good chance that you will find a Psalm that expresses exactly what you are thinking. Since I counsel others with that, I figured I should take my own advice! Psalms like 2:12, 5:11, and 11:1 call on us to take refuge in the Lord because He is a refuge and strength (46:1). This truth was one that continually popped up to me in my Psalms reading. Since I couldn’t even get out of bed on my own, I felt like I was at my weakest, but all the while God is near calling me to take refuge in Him because He is a refuge. I seem to find that the Lord is always near in times of weakness.
Third, is the lesson of the glorious creative work of God in the human body. It is another grace of God that He allowed the invention of surgery to fix these problems people have, but just marvel at the human body for a moment. There are 3 major incisions that the surgeons cut in my body and they are healing. These doctors literally cut me open and my body is fixing those cuts on its own. Also, after surgery there is a lot of swelling that builds up. Once again, your body deals with that on its own and goes back to normal. In both of these cases the body has to naturally be able to do this or else I wouldn’t survive. There is no way this type of self-healing that the body does could just develop naturally over a long period of time. It has to work correctly the first time or else disaster. The human body is a wonder of God’s creation.
All in all the Lord is still shaping me and molding me, even in my time of recovery. I thank you again for all your help and well wishes and hope to be back to ministry soon.