My church back in Kansas City has a Facebook page where all of the women of the church can remain in fellowship with each other throughout the week. They share about upcoming events, they celebrate achievements, but most often the group is used for prayer requests. These beautiful women walk through some really hard stuff and they know that their truths can be shared amongst the group and their needs will be lifted up. I count it a joy to be able to pray with and for my sisters. I am learning something though. I am learning that my prayers often are not big enough.
I think I've always known this in the back of my head but two recent occasions come to mind. Last year, a lady from the church we were attending let me know that her sister was having surgery for ovarian cancer and asked that I would pray for her upcoming surgery. I prayed fervently that the tumor would be contained inside of the ovary and that it wouldn't have spread anywhere. I prayed and I prayed. On the day of surgery, we received the best possible news. The mass that they had found on the CT scan,that they were convinced was cancer, was benign. I rejoiced with my friend and even remember saying how cool it was that God gave us more than we could have even thought to ask for.
Fast forward to my surgery last week. I was so nervous about having this surgery as I know so many people who have had back surgery and regretted it. I prayed for a successful surgery. That my body wouldn't reject the rods, plates, and screws that they were putting in. I prayed that they wouldn't have a need to fuse more than one section. I prayed that they wouldn't perforate my bowels on accident. I prayed against every bad thing that could possibly happen during surgery and just asked that the surgery be successful.
There are no words for the smile that came across my face in the recovery room when I was told that not one single piece of hardware was needed during my surgery. The surgeon opened me up and found three pieces of bone that were broken and needed to be removed and when he checked the stability of the two vertebrae, he discovered that God had already done the hard part. The two vertebrae that were going to need to be bolted together were completely fused together. Solid as a rock. All on their own. Praise Jesus!!!!
Are you kidding me?? Already fused??? I'm sure someone could try to give me some scientific explanation of how or why those two vertebrae were already fused but I am choosing to believe that God simply took care of it. He took care of me. It would've never occurred to me in a million years to ask Him to fuse my spine up so that my surgeon wouldn't need any hardware.
I've had a lot of down time in past week as I can't really do much while I'm healing. I've spent a lot of time thinking about some of the mountains that I and some of my friends need to climb in the months ahead. What if we thought about the best case scenario in some of these situations? What if we dared believe that God would answer our needs in ways we couldn't possibly imagine? What if we really believed that God has a purpose and a plan for all of the storms and we simply trusted that He will give us His best? I'm challenging myself to change my thinking. Want to join me?
