No Way Out!

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 hospital is not the place to go if you need to rest.  People are always coming in and out of your room to check your temperature, to monitor your blood pressure, to weigh you, or to see if you need anything.  My personal favorite is when they wake you up to see if you're sleeping all right.  I've never quite figured that one out!  This was my experience the evening of June 11, 1975.  My parents had taken me to Duke University Medical Center to undergo open-heart surgery the following day.  I was eleven years old and the memory of that evening is indelibly etched on my mind.

I had had a grueling day, spending most of it waiting for a room to become available. Late in the afternoon, I was admitted.  We met with the surgeon early in the evening and then my parents left to go to their hotel.  The remainder of the evening I spent alone with my thoughts.  Many things raced through my mind but the one thought that kept returning to me was that there was no way out.  In the morning, I would be taken to the operating room and the surgery would be performed.  It was just a matter of time before they would come after me.

My parents arrived early the next morning and, not long after their arrival, they came to take me to surgery.  The view from a gurney is very interesting.  All I could see was the ceiling above me and I wasn't sure where I was. All I knew is that everyone around me was a stranger and the surroundings were unfamiliar.  Everyone and everything familiar was behind me while everyone and everything before me was unknown. 

As they made the final preparations for surgery and moved me to the table, the words of Isaiah 43:2-3acame to my mind.  This was a verse I had heard my mom quote several times and the words provided great solace to me, even at eleven years of age.  No words, perhaps, have given me more comfort during the difficult times in my life than these.  Isaiah 43:2-3a says, "When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.  For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior."

As I closed my eyes, I knew God was there.  There was no way out except to go through the surgery.  God's promise was to be with me, all the way through to the very end.  He was there when I went to sleep, he was there when they began the surgery, he was there when they stopped my heart, he was there when they repaired the hole in it, he was there when it started again, and he was there when I woke up.

The pain I experienced when I awoke was proof that God had been with me.  The pain meant I was alive and the surgery was over.  Now the process of healing would begin.  When I saw my parents again, I remembered I hadn't been alone and that the same God who kept watch over me during the surgery also watched over them.  He had been with them through the long hours of waiting and had not left them alone either.

Each time I see the scar on my chest, I am reminded of God's great promise to me.  He never promised to remove the difficulties or the trials of life, but he did promise to go through them with me.  Since then, there have been other trials and tests and I can tell you that in every single one of them God has been with me.  He has never left me but has held my hand at all times through them, just as he promised he would. 

Wherever you are and whatever you are facing in life today, rest assured God knows where you are.  He is there with you, going through every trying experience you have, even when it seems there is no way out. Believe me when I tell you that God is faithful, that he fulfills his promises, that he will never leave you, and he will never forget you.  So, squeeze his hand more tightly as you walk with him today and you'll find that he will squeeze yours as well to let you know everything is all right!