Miracles

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance. He has made everything beautiful in its time. I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil —this is God’s gift to man.”

- Ecclesiastes 3:1, 4, 11-13 -

I have waited a long time to write this post. A very long time. There have been numerous days where I doubted that I would ever be given the chance to write this post. And sometimes I thought that it would be an impossible task for the news I’m about to share to even be able to exist in my life. And yet, here I am… given a rare and precious gift to spread the news of my God’s awesome power in a very specific and tangible way. So as I sit to type, I think everything swirling around in my heart and brain can probably be summed up in one emotion ...overwhelmed…

My prayer is that as you read this you are somehow able to feel the heartbeat of my God and walk away being affected by who He is. This news is real. This news is a miracle. And this news is only possible because of a REAL and ACTIVE God. I want all glory and praise and thanksgiving to be lavished on the only one who deserves it, the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Two years ago I started this blog because of the need for prayer. An “unknown” and devastating illness took over my body and invaded Joe’s and my life within just weeks after getting married. It stripped us what we thought a “normal” life should look like. Wheelchairs and walkers and hospitals and specialists and many tears replaced the typical “newly married obstacle course” of budgeting and grocery shopping and setting up a home that we thought we were to embark on. Our lives were turned upside down. You can read more about the specifics here and here or almost any of my posts from 2008. After two years of struggle, two years of devastation, two years of coping, two years of clinging to the amazing love of our heavenly Savior, two years of seeking to trust Him and remembering that He was still faithful to us, and after two years of receiving the gift of each of your prayers and sacrificial serving toward us I’m excited to announce that…

GOD IN HIS GREAT MERCY

HAS MIRACULOUSLY AND COMPLETELY

HEALED ME!!!

Yes, it’s TRUE! I’ve been healed from this “unknown” disease. My body WORKS again!!!! hahahah!

The first weekend of this past April the married ladies in my church care group took a little weekend retreat. During that time, and particularly in the month or so leading up to the retreat, I was experiencing a lot of spiritual and physical opposition and was pleading for the Lord’s deliverance. This has happened so many times over the last two years… going before the Lord over and over again and asking for his aid and healing. I am certain that he heard everyone one of those pleas for mercy and he loving counted every tear shed before his throne because he promises me in his Word that he has. But I not always saw the grace in the tangible way that I was looking for. But because my God knows what is absolutely best for me and what will bring him the most glory, He knew this time needed to be different. During one of my battles a dear friend on the retreat, Tammy Stoy, came to pray alongside me. It was a rich time of bowing before the Lord and acknowledging my weakness, confessing my utter need for the power of God and rejoicing in the very essence of who God is. And for reasons I can’t understand, God met me there in that little room sitting beside Tammy. He reminded me of His power, of His ever present protection, of His holiness and might, and of His deep unending and unchanging satisfying love. I also had a strong sense that God was declaring to me that “this season is over” and that He was “closing this chapter of trial” in Joe’s and my life. I wasn’t sure what that all meant but I had a faith that God was answering my direct prayer for healing!

Days turned into a couple weeks and over that time Joe and I were met in ways that I hope we never forget! Each day would pass and we would look at each other shocked that I hadn’t experienced a single symptom from my illness. The fatigue was gone, the dizziness had ceased, the headaches were no more, the muscle spasms never came, and the memory loss didn’t happened (although my typical clumsy forgetfulness was present as usual! Ha) among so much more. We would end the day laughing with joy and start the next with more faith in God’s healing then we had the previous day. After a couple weeks of reassuring us that He had indeed completed this trial in our lives… we excitedly told our family and so many of you.

God has been faithful! But God has ALWAYS been faithful!

God has ALWAYS loved me. It’s hard to describe in words what life is like covered in the forgiveness of a holy God. The grace, mercy, and love that I get to know are unexplainable. My illness stripped me of a lot of dear earthly possessions at times (the ability to walk or control my limbs or a voice to talk and even purely the capability to simply think) and so I know in part what it is like to feel as though life is “utterly unfair” or that I’ve been “forgotten by God” or that “He doesn’t love me”. But the truth is, being sick has given me an incredibly precious gift that I don’t know can come apart from a severe trial. God taught me to look for his always active, ever present love blanketing my life. Yes, I was so very sick but oh was I so very RICH! I had a hope in my trial that millions don’t. I KNEW that because God had pardoned my sin by his grace and through my faith in him that no matter what happened here on earth I would be allowed to spend a perfect and painless and sinless eternity with HIM. But I also was given grace to endure, comfort in my time of need, and the strong unchanging power of a mighty God that was working through my trial for my good.

Joe and I have learned a lot. We are still learning a lot. We don’t even know the brink of the depth of the work I’m SURE God did through our little lives in these past two years. We have a rich story of grace and mercy that is only ever growing and we are SO VERY GRATEFUL for the part that YOU have played. Literally hundreds of you served us in ways that impacted us both for I believe the rest of our lives. You were praying non-stop, fasting, bringing us ALL our meals for 8months so that Joe didn’t need to cook, cleaning our house, doing our laundry for us, being there to care for me while Joe was out, sending us money to pay medical bills, buying us a new mattress that would be better for my back, encouraging us, writing letters for Joe to read to me when I couldn’t interact with people, sending me funny pictures to laugh at and dumb games to play to help retrain my brain, thinking of us, telling us how God was using our trial to impact your life… and the list could go on and on. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! We are so rich with you, our dear friends.

My prayer is that our story only grows your faith and that God is brought so much glory… because HE IS WORTHY OF IT!!