Entering into the tenth
surgery in my life causes me to hit the pause button to reflect and
remember. This is good. It helps me to remember God’s
blessings, who He is, what He has done in my life, and my dependence on
Him.
This is the first surgery I
will undergo on an outpatient basis to remove a cyst from my right ankle. The last nine hip or ankle surgeries
kept me in the hospital for a week or more to recover after each operation. So this one should be “pretty simple”,
but I am not taking anything for granted.
If you had told me 20 years
ago I would have 10 surgeries on my hips and ankles by this time in my life I
would say, “No way.” But
God, in His sovereign plan, has used these surgeries in some amazing ways in my
life for His glory.
In John 9, Jesus’ disciples
ask Him about a man born blind.
Was it the parents or the blind man’s sin that caused his blindness?
Jesus lets them know that neither the man nor his parents sinned, “but this
happened that the work of God might be displayed in his life” (John 9:4). I am grateful God uses ordinary people
to magnify His infinite worth.
Here are 10 lessons through
10 surgeries I have learned. There
are more, but these are the ones that come to mind. Some still to be need to be remembered and relearned every
day. I am one of those sheep the
Bible talks about that needs a faithful Shepherd to daily guide and direct me
in my walk with the Lord. Praise
the Lord that God is patient and long-suffering with His children. Many of
these lessons are lessons for life.
1. God is faithful. “Know
that the LORD your God is God; he is a faithful God, keeping his covenant of
love to a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep his
commandments.” (Deuteronomy 7:9).
He provides the right
physicians. He heals. He meets the
multiple financial bills after each surgery. He provides the encouragement of cards, prayers, email, and
meals through others.
2. Be unswervingly God
dependent. It’s easy not to fully lean on
God. My pride says, “I can do this
on my own.” Humility calls me to
humble myself under God’s mighty hand that He may lift me up in due time (1
Peter 4:6).
The crutches I have used
after each recovery every day have taught and reminded me to lean hard into the
grace of God and trust Him. “Trust
in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding in
all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs
3:5-6)
3. God is good, all the
time. “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all of the days of
my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (Psalm 23:6). Even when days are hard, with pain,
whether it be after a surgery or as I keep getting older. God remains a solid rock, a very
present help and refuge in my time of need. He knows me, what I need, and I praise Him for that!
4. Be thankful.
Thankfulness is the dynamite to blow-up a spirit of discontentment,
discouragement, anxiety, and depression.
“Be joyful always; pray
continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you
in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).
5. Suffering now is
nothing to what lies ahead. These present sufferings are
incomparable to the future eternal weight of glory that awaits one who is in
Christ. I believe that. Paul reminds us of that in Romans 8:18,
“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory
that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).
6. Heaven. Heaven and Hell are real places for all eternity. “And these will go away into eternal
punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:46). It is hard to grasp
eternity. But as I see how short life is I am beginning to sense, in a very
small way, what eternity will be like.
I am thankful for heaven
and look forward to seeing Jesus face to face to worship Him free of sin. “Then I saw a new heaven and a new
earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was
no longer any sea. I saw the Holy
City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride
beautifully dressed for her husband” (Revelation 21:1-2).
7. Gospel witness.
Through 10 surgeries I have had opportunities to share the love and hope
of Jesus Christ that I would never have had if I were not born with degenerative
arthritis. A. W. Tozer says, “We are left for a season among men,
let us faithfully represent Him here.” This is my heartbeat!
8. Prayer. Prayer
is a barometer of my spiritual life and I believe a believer’s spiritual
life. If am not praying, what
place does our Heavenly Father have in my life? I wish I could say my barometer is always steady. Often it is not, there are highs and
lows.
My desire is to
consistently live out Colossians 4:2, “Devote yourselves to prayer, being
watchful and thankful.” Lord, help
me to pray with great expectation and with thanksgiving!
9. He knows. This
truth has encouraged and convicted me. “O Lord, you have searched me and you
know me” (Psalm 139:1). The Creator God of this awesome universe we live in
KNOWS me. He knows you too! What a
comfort. He is intimately acquainted with all of my and your ways.
I can relate to what Job
said about God and that he knows everything. “But he knows the way I take; when he has tried me, I will
come forth as gold” (Job 23:10).
10. Remember. Reflecting on what God has done in my life and will do in the future encourages my heart to keep pressing on. I cannot always see God at work in our lives, but He is (Psalm 121; Philippians 2:12-13). Every day His mercies are new…remember…”Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I wait on him” (Lamentations 3:21-25).
