10 Lessons from 10 Surgeries

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).