Nobody
would like to start their year off with something that halt a daily life
routine especially if you got loads of plans and lists of things to do in your
calendar. Unfortunately when sickness hits you and it requires you to be
confined in a hospital bed for 25 long days, there’s nothing you can do about
it but allowed your life to be “interrupted.” This interruption can be both
good and bad depending on how you look at it. Of course, the suffering and pain
while being treated is a thing that we are all or at least I was trying to
avoid not mentioning the trouble I have caused to my family especially to my
parents. But the good part of it is something the most people have failed to
recognize and experience so allow me to share a number of selected “good stuff”
I have perhaps personally desired and experienced in an unpredicted way.
If
it were your first time to be confined that long in a hospital like me, you
would be able to experience and everything that comes along with it! I have not
been hospitalized in my entire life until the past almost four weeks (January
17 to February 11 to be exact). After my first and second CT Scan, the doctors
could not tell whether my appendix has been ruptured or not for it remained
visible according to the latest images. But according to friends and family who
visited and witnessed the pain that I have been through…it was appendicitis.
And if it was…truly it’s a miracle that I was and still alive! Well, the
surgeons and physicians who looked after me told me that it was “medical
management” what they have employed to avoid open surgery, which could result
to longer recovery and other complications. Regardless, I am simply grateful
that I am home.
In
connection with that “miracle”, I have to say that it is a miracle for I
remembered that I have been praying to experience a miraculous healing long
before this interruption. Moreover, when I started to feel the pain
intermittently on the appendix part several months ago, I told God over and
over that I am scared and do not want to undergo any surgery. But it was more
of the former so when a close friend and colleague of mine offered their family
friend who has a gift of healing through prayer, immediately I said yes! It was
the second day of February when this Bishop, together with other three Pastors
or “prayer warriors,” came to pray for me and it was an experience I would
never forget. Because of this unforgettable “miraculous healing” that have
occurred to me I have learned a few things about my faith, about God and His
miracle.
In
one of my devotions few days before I was discharged, God has confirmed what
transpired during my miracle healing. For a miracle to take place it requires
my participation, which explains the unbelief in my heart that it could happen
to me. Yes I want to experience a miracle healing but I have to…no I must pray
to God to help me overcome my unbelief! Second it needs a quick response so
after cleansing through praying for forgiveness and then praying again to
overcome my unbelief, I was ready to be prayed for. Lastly, it needs a
relationship and experience with Jesus that is very personal in which I already
have for more than eight years. Voila! I got my miracle! No surgery needed.
Although I still feel some slight pain as of this writing, the impression I
have in my heart is to continue declaring each day that I am healed.
Another
reflection I have was the probable cause of this very unexpected affliction. I
have been praying for a much deeper and more intimate relationship with Jesus
and more or less…this has become His way. John Piper said affliction helps takes
the glibness of life away and makes us more serious so that our mindset is more
in tune with the seriousness of God’s word. It forces us to rely more on God,
which brings us more in tune with the aim of the word. It makes us search the
Scriptures with greater desperation for help, rather than treating it as
marginal to life. Affliction brings us into the fellowship of Christ’s
sufferings so that we fellowship more closely with him and see the world more
readily through his eyes. Affliction mortifies deceitful and distracting
fleshly desires, and so brings us into a more spiritual frame in which fits
God’s word more. All these I have felt and realized as I was talking to God
each day in the hospital especially the last one for I believe this was also a
spiritual attack. Oh yes my SSA struggles were and will always be a part of the
bigger picture as I continue to strive living “holy” for Jesus. This
“interruption” has moved me to remove and throw off things that hinders and sin
that easily entangles and exert extra effort to truly fix my eyes on Him
(Hebrews 12:1 -2).
These
reflections are on the top of the “good” things that came out of this
affliction. Aside from these reflections and learning, I have seen how God has
moved in responding to my needs. The Lord has brought and mobilized each family
or community He has put me in from the beginning. My church, the NGO where I
have started, the Bible school where I graduated, my Amara family, and dear
friends from the positive community, all of them were represented that almost
everyday I have visitors to cheer me up. Moreover, through these families I
have, the Lord has provided financial support that covered beyond the total
hospital expenses! It felt great to be loved this way! Overwhelming!
What
an unforeseen way to begin my 2016. Please continue to pray with me for
complete recovery and regaining not only my strength but also the over 20
pounds I have lost! Likewise, continue to declare with me that “I am healed”
for I believe in my heart that I am and truly no surgery is needed ever! Praise
the Lord for another wonderful experience with Him! Thank you Jesus…thank you
my dear followers and readers. Blessings!
