A strange feeling came Monday. Weird tightening of the chest for a few seconds. Tuesday, a similar feeling gripped my chest and wondered about the different time of day than yesterday. The return of the sensation overtook my activity and made me pause again. What was going on? Thursday and Friday were the same, a twinge of discomfort for a few seconds. Saturday morning a vice began tightening around my chest as alarm bells stared going off. This 20-second long event got my attention. That afternoon around 5:00 PM, the hammer fell and for almost a minute as my chest was seized by a tightening so severe, I couldn’t breathe. Off to the ER we went……..Thoughts raced by. Would I live to see this Christmas?
How does God get out attention? With words? With Visions? With crossing paths with other people? With encounters with what we would call natural disasters or events? Sometimes, our schedules and daily trajectories are changed because we have a job to do that’s divinely arranged but is not on our calendar!
Do we REALLY understand why things happen? Do we REALLY understand what God is trying to tell us, or guide us to an assignment He wants us involved with? Are we SO confident that we or the medical community have it totally together to answer questions?
I strongly suggest to you this: Nothing happens for no reason. Every thing happens for a reason. And every experience has endless impact. (My dear friend Logan Shannon was revealed this exact expression and in on the cover of the book we co-authored). By all outward appearances, I had a medical / physical event brought on by specific medical condition that could be tested, analyzed, calculated, determined, diagnosed, treated, and healed. Really? Because of my previous experience with colon cancer, I am prepared to pull back the curtains and reveal other reasons why my event occurred on the day it did, the hour it did, and the way it did.
Too many times, we think something led up to an event instead of understanding a holy God would intervene in our schedule to propel us into the place where He needs us. We need to realize we can’t be the critical witness for Jesus Christ in the medical community unless we are IN the medical community. We can be an employee, independent contractor, or a patient! I will not have the opportunity to share my faith to hospital staff as effectively if I am not a patient. My God arranged my path to cross paths of other patients, doctors, RN’s, radiologists, other medical personnel who needed to hear what I had to say. I just can’t walk in off the street, and command the attention of these important folks as a visitor. The Lord CHOSE them to hear ME. How many of us have experienced the same situation where we ended up where we did not plan and talk to someone who desperately needed a kind word, an understanding hug, a shared fallen tear, a ray of hope in the eyes of a person hanging onto their last knot…
Also, there’s nothing that can make a jolting change to a family than the immediate possibility that the patriarch or matriarch will quickly pass on into eternity. This makes an immediate impact. So, don’t just cherish time with family and friends. Realize that the time that you DO spend with them is important and can be life-altering.
“Lord, thank You for overriding our schedule for Your distinct purpose.Thank You for selecting us to do specific tasks in people’s lives according to Your direction. Above all, allow us to be flexible in our thinking, knowing that You didn’t create us so we could reach our goals, but we were created specifically so that You could use US to reach Your goals. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”