The Culture of Hope Founded on Faith
The Wait is Over
The last time I wrote, I talked about God’s call for me to step down and wait. God made it clear that I was entering a new season in my life. I didn’t know what that would look like, but I knew it would include recovery from something.
In June I discovered my new season quite suddenly when I had a heart attack while on vacation. After five days in the hospital, we cancelled the remainder of our plans and headed home. A second ECG this week revealed that my heart has recovered full functionality with strong muscle action and flow. Furthermore, there are no valve leaks or calcification. Praise God for answered prayer!
While in the hospital, the Critical Care Unit Coordinator came into my room one evening. She is a friend who had moved away a number of years ago. In spite of losing touch with her, we have met coincidentally in the oddest places several times since. We both agreed that we love the way God works. That encounter left me laughing over the question, “So I had a heart attack in order to come here to encourage her?”
A better understanding of faith has been one of the outcomes of this cardiac event. To walk into the Emergency Room and announce to the receptionist that you are having a heart attack gains immediate entrance into the inner sanctum of doctor-land. While I lay on the gurney doing LaMaze breathing in the midst of the buzz of activity around my care, it occurred to me that this event removed all sense of control from me. This happened so quickly and could easily have been the end of my physical life. Period. But God, in His sovereignty, has more for me to accomplish to His glory and honor on earth.
Since then, God has been teaching me a great deal about being quiet in His presence and waiting open-handed for His direction and comfort. In 2 Corinthians 1:3-6, the Apostle Paul specifies a part of Christian ministry that is largely ignored. It is the outcome of our own suffering which enables us to comfort and support those who experience similar trials after us.
The bigger picture, however, involves being the Gospel for those who would otherwise never hear the Gospel. 1 Peter 3:15 says, “…be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.” In order for people to ask you the reason for the hope in you, they have to be able to see that hope worked out in your life, that hope on display in the middle of pain and crises, that hope expressed in terms of peace and joy when all around you is chaos. So, once again we are medical missionaries to the personnel and other patients in whatever medical venue we find ourselves.
