We got home from a quick visit to Oregon, so on Friday I was following up on a couple of our church folks who had been at hospitals for procedures this week. One of them learned of another tumor that must be scheduled for surgical removal, and the other, after being prepped, set up for the IV, and waiting several hours, learned that the procedure had to be rescheduled.
But the blessing in all that was not what happened in those situations, but the response of both of the above mentioned couples. In the first case, the one with the tumor as not distressed, but rather, thankful. First, thankful that it was discovered while the tumor still small, and then, thankful that it was in a place more accessible to the surgeon than a previous one had been. While still praying, they are being scheduled for its removal soon, and trusting God with rejoicing.
In the second situation I mentioned above, the couple decided to turn their thoughts, not to themselves, but to the individual who was scheduled ahead of them. A surgery that was only supposed to take an hour or less went on for several more hours. This caused the cancelation of their own procedure, but their concern was for that person who’d been in the operating room all that time. The scripture came to their minds, And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28) and, To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: (Ecc. 3:1) When faced with difficulties, we all have that natural tendency to want to complain of our state of affairs, but here we have from among our church family, some examples of how to better respond to our troubles. Good examples for all of us to follow.