Healing

Are you well acquainted with sickness? Does it pervade over the lives of your friends and family, too? Have you continually begged God for healing for you or for someone you love - while you wait in sterile silence by a bedside where healing does not come? Sounds like I'm about to sell you something - right? Ha! I'm not! I'm asking you, because I want you to know - first of all where I'm heading with this blog and also - to let you know you're not alone! I have been begging God for healing, too! maybe not in the same way you have - with the same situation; the details of our stories could not possibly align exactly - nor the outcome. But even so - I hope to encourage you with truth that God reveals about who He is as our healer.

My brother has had diabetes since he was ten years old. The race for a cure has been in our vernacular since 1980. I had grown accustomed to my brother's silent fight. With the invention of the insulin pump, diabetes is hushed more than it used to be in the past with syringe needles and vials of insulin glaring at us as my brother would prepare his shots. However, despite the change in treatment that has stifled, somewhat comforted, the cry of many diabetics - the volume of this disease was turned up for all of us in 2008. At 11 years of age my niece was diagnosed with diabetes. She braved this diagnosis with her mom at her side at a hospital in Germany. My brother, her dad, was serving our country in Iraq at the time; his wife and three children stationed in Manheim, Germany during the tour. My brother was given a brief leave to come and see his little girl and wife at the hospital, a mental and physical time-out from the war on terrorism - only to try to understand and manipulate tactics of what life with a new enemy - diabetes - would look like - at war within his child.


Then this past March, my sister-in-law was diagnosed with breast cancer. I have always been told that breast cancer would eventually touch all of us - not just by association - or by friendship - but the touch of cancer would be the grip of a family member who would cling to us for help and strength and love... I couldn't imagine that... until now. Now - for me - I cannot see a pink ribbon without seeing our Debbie. Today she is very sick with chemo-therapy. What can we do for her? What would God have us do? Does He see her right. now?

I could go on. Illness in our family does not stop there. My step brother's son - my step sister's sons, close friends and their spouses, children - the disease battle is on going. It is blood deep, thick and heavy; it is personal, and it is relentless. I could pray the names of those I love who are sick - for hours.

I want healing to come to my family - and to my friends, and my daughter is a reminder to me to pray for them daily. Kamryn has been diagnosed with chronic urticaria. This cannot compare with anyone else's battle - I would not begin to compare...My daughter's illness is merely a reminder of those I love who also long for healing. That precious - daily - reminder is, in itself, a beautiful gift. SHE reminds me of THEM. As I long for her to be healed, I long for their healing. Her discomfort makes me realize theirs. Her fight causes me to pray for their strength. Her moments of peace and comfort causes me to pray for their comfort and realization of God in the midst of disease.

Jenna, my diabetic niece, is the one on my mind - in particular - today. As I see her - I have hope for everyone else. Kamryn. Debbie. All of them. Jenna's hope - in God in the midst of diabetes has been and continues to be - beautiful. And God's blessing in the midst of this disease is most evident. From a distance, and at times up close, when we have been able to visit with my soldier family, and I have been able to witness how Jenna embraced the challenges of diabetes with her own two little hands - AND - chose to fight diabetes to conquer it.

Jenna's diet and insulin balance became a matter of her personal studies. She could have let her mom continue to do the work for her - but she didn't. Jenna took diabetes on for herself - because SHE wanted to master it for herself. What child does that? Can you imagine her mom's wonder and pride as she watched her YOUNG daughter take on so much responsibility and self-discipline? Can you just see her daddy wonder in amazement at his baby's GIGANTIC inner drive and fortitude?

This child not only mastered nutrition and diet, but between the ages of 12 and 13, she mastered her insulin levels to eliminate her constant need for insulin injections. She hates shots - and so while the shot-hate motivated her - so too did her God given drive to be healthy. God gave her new desires for her heart. Self-discipline took ROOT in her mind, and determination gripped her spirit. This concoction of champions changed not only her way of thinking, and eating, and lifestyle - it changed her dreams. Now a runner girl, and motivational health nut, Jenna wants to study to be a nutritionist when she graduates from college one day, so she can help others embrace a healthy life. Laser light focus - directed out of chaos. To God be the glory in my niece's heart and mind and body - purposed by God - to bring Him glory. She takes no credit for herself either - but only says - "It is because of prayer alone." WHAT IS THAT but miraculous!?!? ALL GOD! God in a little girl who loves and trust HIM.

It was through this view of my niece that I looked to my own little lamb. Could our Kamryn somehow be given this God-given gift to grip her diagnosis? Could there be someway, somehow, that diet and self-discipline could eliminate her need for the drugs that dominate her life - every . single day??? ... I have talked to God so much about this...so very much. Doctor after doctor, and yes - those that prescribe drugs and those that vitamin and diet analyze - to no avail! One morning a few weeks ago I woke up out of a sound sleep...sat straight up and thought - stop giving her milk. The milk is hurting her. Milk in anything...

And so - trying to sound sane - I told my husband that this is my new thinking, and I was going to trust God with it. How trusting was my child, when I told her that I believed this idea was from God, and that we were just going to follow Him with it, until He would direct us otherwise. "God is my dreaming". You probably think I am crazy. If you do - you're right. HOW INCREDULOUS for me to trust in God! a physician who speaks without a voice to me in sleep - who impressed direction to me without a burning bush or angelic being. To trust God without hesitation...ME?!?! Ha! This is plain nuts and is miraculous to me as well.

I went on a very intense ingredient hunt - and ANYTHING with milk - I removed from her diet. ANYTHING! You know how many things have milk? Within two days - no Zyrtec and no more itchy, watery eyes. Day three she hived. There's more, I thought. What else is an allergen? I studied my face off. Wheat, gluten and eggs are high on the list. All of them we have removed from her diet. Can I tell you - that in the midst of this - my Bible study group at church asked me if the seven of us could pray for Kamryn together...we did. Just before Easter they prayed with me. Powerfully! I wish you could have heard them cry out to God for help for my girl. BEAUTIFUL PRAYERS of women who believe in God! Can I even tell you!?!!> Kamryn did not hive for a week...until she ate wheat and gluten in pretzels by mistake. The hives came - and even so - I was still excited! We have found it! Milk, gluten, wheat - and perhaps eggs. She went for seven days without any allergy symptoms! I am freaking out! This has not happened in this little girl's life since she was 2 1/2! All these years battling allergy symptoms - lethargy, depression, itching - weepy, itchy eyes! AND NOW!!! yes! now!!! She is free! (I wish you could have heard the prayers of praise from my Bible study group! They clapped in prayer! Are you in a Bible study group? JOIN MINE!!! Oh so good to do life with women who love Jesus with you!!!)

So - now it's game on at the grocery store and in my kitchen as I feed this child in a whole new way - I could care less about the diet challenges ahead of us...my baby is drug free...and our prayers for healing - have been answered well beyond what I could have hoped or imagined... What do I mean by that?

I get that her body is not resilient to the allergen. That was my hope. But THIS - this challenge that my daughter is now undertaking - is doing in her, what diabetes has done in her cousin. AND glory to God that my daughter can look up to her cousin who, at the same age Kamryn is now, - 11 - had to completely change her diet to live a new and BETTER way! Kamryn is learning what I could have never taught her with words, or even examples of people she knows and loves, ... She - my hands-on little learner - is embracing the beauty of self-discipline with her own heart - her own mind - her own hands...and THIS for her will continue to change everything in her life. How beautiful as a momma - to see my baby discipline herself in ways I would have never thought possible. What a blessing to her athlete daddy to see his baby in the training of her life...a new heart - a new mind - a new body - a new focus...

My prayers for healing for those I love - who continue to battle disease - have been revamped. I no longer pray wondering if God hears me. I no longer pray out of an impatient, aching heart. I pray with the knowledge that our God is at work, and He has a plan - and I can wait EXPECTANTLY in the midst of disease for the evidence of His work to become clear to me. I have misunderstood my God - our healer - for so long. He is at work in His people CONSTANTLY- racing for the cure - that is not just our body - but is our eternal soul. What a God!

"And WE KNOW!!! all things work together for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28

There is no such thing as sterile silence when we pray. We - who know and love God - pray on HOLY! FERTILE ground! (yes, I'm -a-shoutin'!) with expectation that GOD IS! We can KNOW He is not stymied by disease but is ABLE to accomplish beyond what we can ask or imagine for our good - and for His glory. He is OUR God. MIGHTY. Everlasting. HEALER!