Submitted by Mary Crow
Today, we had Praise Team practice to prepare for the next two weeks of PWOC. I had just enjoyed a wonderful time with a handful of some of my favorite ladies while praising the Lord. I don’t think it gets much better than that! Anyway, I was driving, and had to drop a friend off at her house before rushing home to grab a late lunch. Suddenly, something in my back was tweaked and it hurt to even breathe. I had been putting off getting a check-up on an old injury, and it now had escalated beyond being ignored.
I dropped her off and came home. After feeding my three year old something, I changed while hoping that it would dissipate. It didn’t. I chose super-comfortable clothes and grabbed a sandwich, then sat still. Still, it did not stop. I had no choice but to go and wait at my friend’s house for kids from the bus (our daily ritual). The pain was unrelenting. Luckily, I recalled that I had pizza in the freezer. Thank the Lord that I didn’t have to cook dinner.
Hours later, after adding hefty pain killers, heating pad treatments, and sitting still as much as I could despite the strong drive I’ve had lately to clean and purge due to an upcoming PCS, I prayed. Why didn’t I do that first? Because life got in the way. I used Facebook as the wonderful tool that it is to ask for prayer. It’s still hurting, though, even through everything.
I finally cracked open my bible and began to read. The most interesting thing happened when I started turning the pages of the Word of God. Verses started jumping out at me like nothing as I flipped around through my bible.
Then I would still have this consolation—my joy in unrelenting pain—that I had not denied the words of the Holy One.(Job 6:10) Yet if I speak, my pain is not relieved; and if I refrain, it does not go away.(Job 16:6) Night pierces my bones; my gnawing pains never rest.(Job 30:17) Job has been where I am now. My back is filled with searing pain; there is no health in my body. (Psalm 38:7) For I am about to fall, and my pain is ever with me. (Psalm 38:17) I am in pain and distress; may your salvation, O God, protect me. (Psalm 69:29) David has, too. So has Jesus, as we all have been taught.
While my head knows that there is nothing new under the sun, sometimes my heart doesn’t want to believe it or cannot fathom the idea. Sometimes, it takes something as out-of-control as an agonizing pain, or a small annoyance to make us do what we were meant to do. I should know this from those scripture examples. Job and David didn’t have the Holy Spirit leading them the way I do, nor did they have a bible to turn to in times of trouble. Where did they turn? Directly to God.
The next time that I have a problem, I won’t turn to worldly things. I won’t run to a friend, lean on my spouse, or rely on medicine to fix me. I’ll go directly to my Daddy, my Heavenly Father. I’ll curl up in His lap. I’ll beg for His comfort. I’ll request His healing. He should be the one who I turn to first, just like my daughter turns to her parents when she is in need. After all, didn’t Jesus say to come as a child?
