Monday, May 14, 2007

Monday, May 14th

Well, tomorrow is the BIG day. Only the hospital hasn't officially confirmed with us that we should go down in the morning. We're waiting for one more piece of paperwork to fall into place and then we go. I think they'll notify us at 7:32 AM. THEN we'll get in the car.

I was talking to Beth, Annie's OT, today, and I asked her, "What do you think God is trying to tell me in this whole episode?" She said, "Surrender and dependence upon Him." Okay--those two words keep repeating in my mind: surrender and dependence. We as red-blooded A-mar-E-cans think we have control of our lives--but when difficult things happen we find out how much control we really have. Zip. Zero. Zilch. "Surrender and dependence upon God," the words for today.

So--thank you for praying for Annie's transition into Rehab. What to pray for? No throwing up, peace, protection from getting a hospital bug, steady and measurable progress, comfort for the kids at home, strength and energy for Bill & I, and whatever God lays on your heart. Your prayers are such an integral part of her healing and we can feel them every day.

Jean

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. Brothers, pray for us.
1 Thessalonians 5:23-25

4 comments:

Gretchen said...

Jean, as always, you have my love and prayers. And...I know that Beth is right. In fact, in doing a couple of Bible studies lately, I seem to have stumbled upon 2 phrases which could be subtitles for the Holy Bible:

1. It's not about me.
2. God wants my total surrender and dependence on Him. That's what allows Him to work.

You're right about the red-blooded American thing...totally. I remember that my mom raised me to be so independent that I wouldn't hvae to depend on anyone. Of course that had NOTHING to do with my dad's abandoning his family...I don't blame her because her own experience and the blinding nature of our culture says she was right. However, God was always waiting. Thankfully for me, she's with Him now, and his gracious patience has allowed me to be with him as much as possible while I'm on the planet.

Glory to God, and praise Him for all He has planned and the works He will do in Annie and in all of us. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Anonymous said...

The Serenity Prayer
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.

--Reinhold Niebuhr

Praying for much serenity,
Marilyn

Anonymous said...

Jean, I love your family so much and am praying daily for you. Please let us know whatever we can do to help make this new adventure easy for your family.
Love
Patti

Anonymous said...

Being dependent on no one allows us to be lonely.
Being strong all the time allows us to not feel.
Being able to handle anything this world throws at us with no help from Anyone
allows us to be unrelational.

Relationships are hard. Period. People let us down.
And oh, did you know? We let others down too. Period.

Sometimes the phone rings.
We don’t have to answer it. We could just let it ring.
Sometimes someone knocks at the door. We could ignore it. We could walk out the back door and pretend we were too busy working in our garden.

Sometimes Someone knocks at the door.
We could ignore It.
We could walk out the back door and pretend we were too busy working in our garden.

But the knock is persistent.
The Knocker won’t leave.
The knocking continues.
We can still ignore It.
But it won’t stop.
And if we take a moment to notice, we will see that, no matter how hard we work in the garden, ignoring the knock at the door, our plants still wither, the buds die on the vine, the leaves fall, dried and brown from the branches. No amount of our watering, or our tending, can save them.

Answer the door.
The knocking will stop. The Guest will step inside.
Lo and behold, against our greatest imagination, against all that we have learned about people, the complication of relationships, the value of independence, the risk of feeling, suddenly, without doing anything for anybody, without strings attached, by no outstanding performance of our own, by doing absolutely nothing to deserve it, our Guest will be our Friend.

But there is still risk. More risk than ever.
Once we had perfect understanding of everything in our lives.
Once we knew exactly what we needed to do in every situation.
Once we could handle everything on our own.
Once we needed nobody.
Once we could freely feel nothing.
Once we had the right to be lonely and unrelational.
Suddenly, we must give everything away.
Suddenly, we must be dependent.
Suddenly, we are weakened, and our feelings raise their ugly heads and will not let us turn away.
Suddenly, we are in relationship.
Suddenly, we are following Someone Else.
Suddenly, our way is not the best.
What we know and think and dream is not the only way.

We will continue to let our new Friend down, until That Day.
But, if we let Him in the door, our new Friend will never let us down.
He holds out his hand to us.
All we have to do is take it.

It’s okay; He won’t let us down.