Over the past week God has brought us so many examples of miracles He has done recently. We know about the miracles in the Bible, but often times we want to rationalize events that occur today so that they aren’t deemed as miraculous.
My sweet friend from Bible study sent me this video of the story behind Josh Wilson’s song “Before the Morning”. His song has been on the blog, but I never knew the story behind it. It is a story of the miraculous, and one in which God used to remind me that He does still perform miracles.
The past week was a roller-coaster starting off as an uphill climb and ending back on flat ground. At the beginning of the week, John was having a lot of trouble breathing especially at night. One night was the worse I had ever seen him as far as him having difficulty breathing. He had to get up and come downstairs to sit in upright in the recliner, something he hasn’t has to do since our hospital visit in May. When he woke up the next morning and weighed himself he had gained four pounds. This is a definite sign that fluid is backing up, and we immediately called the doctor. He gave John a “super water-pill” that they don’t like to prescribe unless absolutely necessary because of the possible damage it could cause to his liver after prolonged use. However, that water-pill did the trick! He has felt much better since then.
Throughout the week, God continued to bring us encouragement through stories of other people who have dealt with chronic illnesses much like John’s. It seems that each time our hope begins to fade, He steps up and hand delivers words and experiences that bring right back up into His Hands.
Lord, we thank you for these blessings this week:
1. Giving us encouragement and hope through the stories of other people who have dealt with chronic illnesses. 2. The medication that helped get fluid off of John’s body and helped him to feel better. 3. Sustaining John’s weak heart and for the strength and energy you have given him to get through his days. 4. Continuing to help us to see Your perspective and make us more like You through this process. 5. John’s health care, doctors, nurses, and the entire transplant team. 6. Our families and friends who offer us continual support and love. 7. My summers off from work so that I can focus on taking care of John and running our household. 8. Your Word that teaches us about the hope we have in You.
This week, Lord, please hear these prayers from us:
1. We pray for John’s heart donor. That he is a Christian or becomes one soon. We pray for his family. That they know You and if not will come to know You through their trials and circumstances. That you will give them love, comfort, hope, and peace. That there is peace in their family presently, and that their relationships continue to build throughout the next several months. 2. Please humble us. Remind us daily from whom all the possibilities of our future come from. Remind us that we are nothing without You and your grace. 3. Please give us Your perspective and understanding of life, the world, our future, and eternity. Help us to have a spiritual and eternal mindset even in the mundane activities of our daily lives. 4. Continue to use this season of our lives to grow us to become your disciples. Help us to be open to Your voice and respond to it out of the Holy Spirit’s leadings. 5. Please continue to sustain John’s heart. Give him energy and strength each day. Give him restful sleep at night. Take away the aches and pains he feels. 6. Please keep defeat and discouragement far from John’s mind and heart. 7. Give me to energy to serve John daily and to be the wife you’ve called me to be for him. 8. Please give John wisdom about work and how much work he needs to safely do each day. Help him to trust in You to meet all of our needs. 9. Be with the transplant team and give them wisdom in treating John. 10. Please send John a healthy heart that will give him many, many more productive years serving You. 11. Of the hearts that become available in the next few months, we pray that one is a perfect match for John. We pray one becomes available in Your timing and no sooner.
The other day John and I were talking. I honestly can’t remember about what, but I remember something he said to me that got me thinking more.
He said, “When I get better I’m going to run and lift weights with you.” Then he paused for a second and said, “I might have to start off running and walking at first, but I’m going to do it.”
I started thinking more about this and visualizing it in my head more over the next few days. It is truly a miraculous picture. I can’t help but smile until my cheeks hurt when I see John running.
I have not known John since he was healthy enough to run. I actually haven’t known John long enough to see him do a lot of things. But as I think about our future, I think about all the things I want to see him do and all the things I want to do with him.
I want John and I to walk around the block, plant gardens in our yard, go camping, hike in the mountains, dance together, travel to new places, eat in fun restaurants, go to amusement parks, play ball in the backyard with our children, cook together, swim in the ocean, sight see in North Carolina, tailgate with friends, watch the Bulldogs play live in Sanford Stadium, learn to play a sport together, and of course run.
From my perspective now these are pretty big endeavors. As I continued to think about this, I found myself asking if I really should be asking God for all of these things. Maybe I need to just focus on right now and keep my prayers to helping John feel better and get a healthy heart soon.
But my very next thought was how much bigger God is than that. God created the Universe, sent plagues to Egypt, parted the Red Sea, made the blind to see, raised Lazarus from the dead, fed thousands, healed the sick, walked on water, resurrected His Son for our salvation, and so on and so on.
So should I just be asking for our immediate needs? No, because God is bigger than that. God can handle and answer ALL of my prayers if it is His will. It is not whether He can or not. It is whether it is a part of His perfect, and ultimate plan.
So I am asking BIG, and waiting for God to answer big as if He already has.
Here is more on Erik Compton’s story from just this week.
And here is a story from ESPN.
Originally Published: June 14, 2010
Compton embarks on U.S. Open journey
By Gene Wojciechowski
ESPN.com
Archive
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Rule No. 1 in sports journalism: No cheering in the press box.
Rule No. 2: Unless it’s Erik Compton.
Compton qualified a week ago for the U.S. Open. He did it the day after shooting a disastrous 82 in the final round of the Memorial Tournament. It took him 36 nerve-racking holes, plus another three-hole playoff, before the USGA punched his first ticket to an Open appearance. Check that — his first majors appearance.
Erik Compton will compete in his first U.S. Open, and first major championship, this week at Pebble Beach.
“I would never really change my life, because I’ve experienced so much,” Compton said. “I’ve been able to drive through things. I just keep plugging away.”
Gee, that’s nice, you say. But aren’t there are a handful of unknowns such as Compton who squirm and squeeze their way into an Open field every June? And don’t they all have their little backstories of gutting it out and playing with heart?
Yes, they do. Except that Compton is playing with someone else’s heart.
His own heart called it quits when he was 12 years old — Feb. 26, 1992, to be exact. That’s when surgeons at Miami’s Jackson Memorial Hospital replaced his diseased heart with one from a 15-year-old donor who had been killed by a drunk driver. Her name was Jannine, and she gave Compton the best 16 years she never had.
In May 2008, Jannine’s heart, having done all it could, was replaced with Isaac’s heart. Isaac, a University of Dayton volleyball player, was killed by a hit-and-run driver. And yet here they are — Compton, Jannine and Isaac — together at gorgeous Pebble Beach in a spiritual and physical way that defies explanation.
“I still think of them as a part of me,” Compton said.
He shouldn’t be alive. Compton, 30, admitted as much. The cardiomyopathy could have done him in years ago. Or his body could have rejected Jannine’s heart. Or the heart attack he suffered in 2007 could have killed him. Or Isaac’s heart could have failed.
As it is, Compton’s body has more staple scars than a dorm hall bulletin board. His chest has been cracked open like an oyster shell. And he has no feeling in his upper left leg, thanks to the heart/lung machine lines they ran between his groin and thigh.
“I tell my wife, ‘It’s not a marathon who lives the longest; it’s the quality of your life,’” Compton said. “It’s not really a race.”
That’s not exactly true. Compton tries to cram as much quality into his life as possible. We live day to day; Compton lives minute to minute, second to second.
Makes sense. This is a guy who has said his final goodbyes to family and friends on more than one occasion. You tend to do that when you know surgeons are going to remove your heart from your chest cavity.
Compton has reconciled life and death because he didn’t have any choice. He has asked himself the kinds of questions few people face — and even fewer people can answer.
For instance: Why does he live, but Jannine and Isaac don’t? And always in the back of his mind is the same question: “How long is this heart going to last?”
“I am on my third heart,” he said. “My heart was out of my chest. So I’ve been blessed and lucky to have the stars aligned. … You have to be lucky, and I’ve been lucky along the way.”
Compton has made qualifying runs at majors in the past, but could never put two rounds of golf together. He’d shoot a 66 in the opening 18 and a 79 in the closing round. Part of it was nerves, but part of it was the cumulative physical effects on his body.
Last Monday was different. He was tired (try walking 36 holes under normal circumstances, much less with a transplanted heart and the pressure of Open qualifying), but this time Compton kept grinding away. If he two-putted on the final hole of regulation, he was in. Instead, he three-jacked from 30 feet.
“I went down to the locker room and screamed at myself for a few minutes,” he said. “Then I was eerily calm. I knew it was my time. I wasn’t going to let anybody take it from me.”
A kick-in par on the third playoff hole earned him the final Open spot from the sectional. Five days later he was standing on the No. 1 tee box at Pebble for a nine-hole mini-practice round. He had walked parts of the course years ago, but had never played it — until this past Saturday.
“Pretty special place, man,” he said, not bothering to hide the excitement in his voice.
Will he win the Open? I hope so. So does his wife, Barbara, and his father, Peter, and all the friends and family making the trip to Pebble this week. And so does Isaac’s family, who met Compton a year ago at the Memorial (fitting name, eh?).
Compton shouldn’t be alive, but he is. He could have wilted during the sectional playoff, but he didn’t. He might be defined by Thursday’s and Friday’s Open scorecards, but he won’t — at least not by me.
“Greatness is greatness,” said Compton, who has relied on sponsor exemptions to play on tour this season. “I told my wife I just want to feel the feeling of greatness. I’d love to feel what those guys feel who win every four, five weeks. Or maybe my feeling of greatness is qualifying for the Open.”
He said this as his 14-month-old daughter, Petra, cooed and giggled in the background. Petra was born Feb. 22, but her due date was the 26th — the same day Compton received his first transplant.
Anyway, there’s only one word you can use to describe Compton’s story.
Heartwarming.
Gene Wojciechowski is the senior national columnist for ESPN.com. You can contact him at gene.wojciechowski@espn.com. Hear Gene’s podcasts and ESPN Radio appearances by clicking here.
It has been a very difficult week for John. Last night I went to dinner with my ladies Bible study friends, and when I left I felt just defeated and worn out. John was at home and again not feeling his best. I think he felt a little defeated too. It had been a long week, and it was obvious that it was Thursday. It had taken it’s toll. How are we going to make it months like this before his heart comes?
After spending some time away, talking with girlfriends and having a diversion from life at home, I felt more energized by the time I got back home. When I walked in the door John was still up and awake and sitting in his recliner. ESPN was on the T.V., and he had his IPhone in his hand. He seems a little peppier, too, from the time I had left.
He said to me, “I want you to watch this.” And he handed me his phone. This is what I saw.
Throughout this blog I have tried to capture God’s words to us, how He is using us, and how he is encouraging us through this process. And I have mentioned that His encouragement comes daily through His Word, through the quiet, small voice of the Holy Spirit, through our circumstances, through the people around us, and through things we read and hear. And when I say daily, I literally mean daily.
Once again He has brought us another story of hope. Hope for now and hope for our future. These stories, these gifts from God, are what help us to stay focused on Him and the fact that He is orchestrating this whole process and that He has big plans for John.
John watched this video a few more times last night. This morning he watched this one and another I found from just this week before he went to work. To see the look in his eyes, the smile on his face, and the renewed hope the Lord brought us last night and into today, gives me one more reason of endless reasons to be in awe of our Lord.
Last night John was really sick. He was having a very hard time breathing which means there was a lot of extra fluid he was holding in his body. This is what happens when your heart doesn’t work properly. Your blood isn’t being circulated completely, so your body can’t flush out fluid that isn’t needed. He was up most of the night. It is probably the worst I have seen him as far as him not being able to breath. It was pretty scary.
Nevertheless, John went to work today. Later in the morning I got an email from him entitled “Building Elevators are Temporarily Out of Service”. He was forwarding me a message he had just received from work. In his email he proceeded to tell me that as soon as he got to work he was bombarded with requests and demands, and now the elevators weren’t working. So here he was not feeling well, sleep deprived, dealing with demanding co-workers and customers, and stuck on the fifth floor. He said that if the elevators weren’t fixed after lunch, he wouldn’t be able to get back up to his office. He could probably walk down the five flights taking breaks, but at this point walking up them is not an option.
In the meantime of getting his email and hearing of how his day had started off so horribly, I was leaving messages and playing phone tag with the nurse. She did call in a “super water pill” for John to take tonight, and hopefully that will get a lot of the extra fluid off of him.
During all of this I also read a blog that I like to read every day called “Desiring God” by John Piper, and today’s post was entitled “Song for Those with Disabilities”. The post had the lyrics written out and a link to hear the song itself. Immediately I was intrigued by the song’s title, and after reading the words and listening to the music I was amazed at God once again. On this day, after an exhausting night, when self-pity, resentment, anger, and fear want to set in and become footholds in our lives, God delivers to us this song of encouragement.
The ways God speaks to us simply amazes me. It amazes me at how the words come – through a song, or a person, or a thought, or an experience. It amazes me at how quiet His words are and if you aren’t really attuned to the Holy Spirit you might miss them. And it amazes me at how they come at just the perfect moment when they will have the most meaning and significance. As I have mentioned in previous posts, God continues to show up for us daily. He continues to speak to us, encourage us, and remind us that “all things work together for good for those who love Him”.
Lord, we do love you and thank you for sending us these words today.
“Song for Those With Disabilities”
Within the womb I formed you
I fashioned and made each part
I thought of your fingers, your hands and your feet
Your mouth, your lungs, your heart
Though you might think that you’re different
I made you the way that you are
So you could discover the God who made you
And find out all I am
And though you might think you have limitations
There are no limits with me
When you turn your eyes to my salvation
Finally you will see
In Me, you have all that you need
In Me, you have all that you need
In Me, you have all that you’ll ever need.
And I’ve heard each prayer that you’ve called out
“Why did you make me this way?”
You may not completely understand now
But there will be a day
When I make everything known to you
And what you don’t now understand
You will see that I’m wise and I’m mighty and good