It used to be that when I would pray for someone who was sick, I generally I just asked for an alleviation of the symptoms, (to be relieved of the pain...), but did not ask specifically for them to be healed.
This week I have been praying for Laura, a singer I used to work with at my previous church. She was a student at Southwestern, and sang both in the praise band and choir. We enjoyed her theater performances at Southwestern.
Over the week-end I received an email from her mother telling me that several weeks ago, they had rushed Laura to the ER with joint swelling and lesions on her hands.She was admitted to ICU for three days and then the cardiac unit, and later was diagnosed with ANCA vasculitis, an auto immune disease.
Her mother writes:
She realized today that all her "instruments" have been attacked! The doctor told her not to speak or whisper at all since so much strain has been put on her vocal chords. After he left she was brought to tears realizing that her "gift" has been completely silenced!I remember when one of my gifts was silenced, our second year in Ghana [read here] when my shoulder was dislocated and fractured by a large wave while swimming in the ocean. While I healed, I was unable to play guitar, type on the computer, cook, ride a bicycle, or really do much else. While the pain was unimaginable, what I really felt was the loss of who I was and what I could do. If I could not do these things, then who was I, and what good was I to anyone around me? I imagine that is what Laura is feeling right now, and maybe God can use this in her life to teach her that she is so much more than those things that she did.
I find it interesting how in each of the tellings of this story, they end with "and she got up and began to wait on them." It was the fever that was keeping her from doing those things that definer her, and once healed, she returned to do them. Knowing the marvelous instrument that God gave Laura, I can imagine that is going to be one of the first things she does when she is healed...begin to sing God's praise. When I say "I can imagine," I am not using a turn of phrase, it is really my prayers for. I go to my prayer place, and imagine her singing, not as a memory, but as a soon to see future in her life. Praying now with words, but with images to let God fill in the details of how to get there.
In the second healing account, the one of the Leper being healed, I like how in each case he says "if you are willing..." never doubting that Jesus was able (even though it happens very early in the ministry of Jesus). Prayers like that must pull at God's heart, and I hope so, for that is my prayer for Laura, saying "If you are willing..." and then imagining Laura singing God's praise.
I so look forward to how God will heal Laura, and hearing her amazing voice she sings glory to God with gratitude. Will you pray with me too?
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