I was debating whether or not to write this blog post. Even now I'm having doubts if I should, talking myself out of it these last few days. Constant internal back and forth.
Everything has been a bit crazy in life and online. I've seen sides of people I've known for years shock me on how they're treating others with comments and mean spirited memes. Kind of makes me want to take another break from social media, but I'm not running or hiding, but remaining neutral out of respect for others despite being super opinionated over everything. My family knows what I think about stuff which is good enough for me. Heh, we just vent to each other.
With that said it was really windy last week while two fires blazed in Utah County. Both fires are now contained. What was interesting was a picture that was all over the local news in regards to the Knolls fire. It was an image of a fire line that came right up to the back of a bunch of houses, rectangle shaped, but didn't burn the homes. The fire fighters were amazing. And I just read an article about a man who stayed behind, having fire line experience, and was able to create a safety parameter. All the comments rightly celebrated these men. They deserve so much praise. What surprised me was a considerable lack of calling this a miracle, and when people did mention God other commenters jumped in to attack saying only the firefighters deserve praise.
The firefights worked hard. They were heroic and brave. But how is pausing to thank God for a miracle taking away the bravery of the fire fighters? We should thank God for all the miracles in our lives. And thanking God doesn't take anything away from anyone, it adds to everything in a beautifully magnificent way.
I do believe in the power of prayer. I believe in it with my whole heart. Within the last few years my Dad had neck surgery. I had an idea of when his surgery was starting and was going to say a little prayer around that time, but 45 minutes before this time I was prompted to say a prayer right then and there. I was walking around the living room, getting goal steps in, watching Agents of Shield (I didn't watch last season, so it was before this), and I was going to wait until after the episode. But the feeling persisted. I said a quick prayer while standing, not even pausing the episode. Then the words came into my mind, "No, kneel, and say the prayer out loud." I paused the episode and knelt next to the couch. The words that came out of my mouth I can't entirely remember, and I said things I wasn't planning on saying. One thing I do remember was praying for the help of the doctors, that if anything wrong happened they would be inspired to know what to do.
The next 30 minutes was filled with back and forth calls with my Mom who was in the hospital up in Salt Lake. My Dad's surgery was called off, though I didn't know this at the time. Something bad happened during prep. Something with the breathing tube. The moment I said the prayer my Mom tried to call me, and even though she had no problems calling from that spot before or after my prayer, while I was praying her phone kept dropping her calls to me. Then after she got a hold of me, literally right when I finished the prayer, the doctor came out to tell my Mom the surgery was canceled, so I hung up for my Mom to talk and get information. And then my Mom called me back and told me that while she was talking to the doctor, well, technically surgeon, the surgeon got a call that those in prep were able to fix what had gone wrong, so she headed back to the operation room. The surgeon later told my Mom that over years and years of having operations canceled, only two, my Dad included in this statistic, was turned around and the surgery went ahead and was performed.
The doctors were brilliant. But what happened that day was a definite miracle. Prayer is powerful. Prayer does work. Does it always work? Well, that's where faith comes in. Faith to accept whatever happens. I always pray to have faith and strength to overcome a trail if there is to be one. I have so many unanswered prayers. I've prayed for protection and help, healing, and not received it. My heart aches with loneliness. But there is power in prayer. And there are still miracles happening everyday. When they do happen lets not forget to pause and say a prayer of thanks. There's strength in it, not weakness. There's strength in faith.
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