Photo Credit: RUSTY COSTANZA / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE
The ER. The place everyone is thankful for when they need it but the place where no one wants to be. With the sounds of the beeping EKGs and heart monitoring machinery still echoing in my ears the events that transpired in the wee hours of this morning still seem very surreal to me. While I’m no ER newbie, it’s a place that you never really get used to. I make my rounds to the ER almost monthly with various adolescents from the residential facility where I am a youth counselor. My sister jokingly told me this morning that they should offer me a commission already.
While this recent trip to the ER with my father resulted in him being released without a bleak diagnosis, the whole experience was quite taxing. It’s hard to see someone you love strapped up to oxygen and all the other standard monitoring equipment the ER has to offer. After seeing my father questioned, poked and prodded my first instinct was to start praying. After praying for my father for a while my focus shifted to all the other patients and their families that were in the ER. Most of them were in far worse shape then my father. It is amazing that God in His providence would strategically position you to lift up the needs of your “neighbors” when you least expect it.
I remember hearing the testimony of a women otherwise healthy suddenly falling gravely ill. The doctors in her community could not figure out what was wrong with. After weeks of being bedridden and in excruciating pain, her mother decided to bring her to New York to be seen by specialists. They were able to correctly diagnose her and immediately admitted her to the intensive care unit. She mentioned that after being admitted to the ICU she started to pray and ask God why this was happening to her. She pleaded with God to heal her so that see get back to doing all the things that she previously had taken for granted like brushing her daughters hair of preparing a meal for her family. As she prayed and began to cry God started to speak to her heart. She started to look around the ICU and noticed all the other people in very bad condition with no family support and no one by their sides. God revealed to her that while she being an active member in her local church had many people praying for her, that these brothers and sisters had no one to intercede on their behalf. God simply wanted her to carry their burdens and lift them up in prayer. She was humbled and realized what a privilege it was that God was using her as His hand extended.
She shared this testimony prior to signing a solo with the choir from her church completely healed and with a new appreciation for brushing her daughters hair and preparing dinner for her family. How great is our God!
While this recent trip to the ER with my father resulted in him being released without a bleak diagnosis, the whole experience was quite taxing. It’s hard to see someone you love strapped up to oxygen and all the other standard monitoring equipment the ER has to offer. After seeing my father questioned, poked and prodded my first instinct was to start praying. After praying for my father for a while my focus shifted to all the other patients and their families that were in the ER. Most of them were in far worse shape then my father. It is amazing that God in His providence would strategically position you to lift up the needs of your “neighbors” when you least expect it.
I remember hearing the testimony of a women otherwise healthy suddenly falling gravely ill. The doctors in her community could not figure out what was wrong with. After weeks of being bedridden and in excruciating pain, her mother decided to bring her to New York to be seen by specialists. They were able to correctly diagnose her and immediately admitted her to the intensive care unit. She mentioned that after being admitted to the ICU she started to pray and ask God why this was happening to her. She pleaded with God to heal her so that see get back to doing all the things that she previously had taken for granted like brushing her daughters hair of preparing a meal for her family. As she prayed and began to cry God started to speak to her heart. She started to look around the ICU and noticed all the other people in very bad condition with no family support and no one by their sides. God revealed to her that while she being an active member in her local church had many people praying for her, that these brothers and sisters had no one to intercede on their behalf. God simply wanted her to carry their burdens and lift them up in prayer. She was humbled and realized what a privilege it was that God was using her as His hand extended.
She shared this testimony prior to signing a solo with the choir from her church completely healed and with a new appreciation for brushing her daughters hair and preparing dinner for her family. How great is our God!
“if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
2 Chronicles 7:14 (New International Version)
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