Have you ever wondered how lucky you are? I mean, have you ever thought-how did you make it out of life-threatening situations or circumstances? Many people would say their just lucky. Some people would say that they are blessed. A wise man once told me that the difference between luck and blessings-all depends upon one’s faith. Years ago I learned about faith from a 80’s vampire movie called Fright Night. In the movie the vampire grabs and crushes a cross with his bare hand-laughs and says to one of the victims “you have to have faith for this to work”. The next victim pulled out his cross and the vampire began to back off. It was the other victims faith that helped him survive. Even though Fright Night was a fictional movie-I did leave the movie theater with a better understanding of how faith works.
I hear a lot of religious people using the word faith all the time. Some even say they walk by faith and not by sight, which references a scripture in the bible 2 Corinthians 5:7. What I took from that scripture was-a person going to a place they don’t necessarily see, but their faith in God assures them they will get to where they need to go. But what does faith mean to you? In the Bible faith means:
The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1, KJV).Hebrews 11:1
I want to share an experience I had recently about faith. My 12 year old son Chad has Scoliosis. Scoliosis is when a person has a curve of the spine. He was diagnosed with it at the age of 5. As my son got older the pain associated with his Scoliosis got progressively worse. Doctors said that Chad would experience more intense pain as he grew. He also said that Chad would likely need to have back surgery at some point, because the curve in his spine can puncture one of his lungs. For years I thought maybe if I had my son wear a back brace-surgery might not be necessary. However, after many doctor visits and x-ray’s done over the years the doctors recommended that Chad needed to get the surgery asap before he hits his growth spurt, which starts around age 12 for most kids. Even-though the doctors were optimistic they did tell me there were some risk involved. One of the risk was if doctors were not able to straighten the curve on the first attempt they would have to leave the back opened and exposed for three whole days and then re-enter the back to try and straighten the curve again. That would mean two surgeries for the same problem, increasing the probability that anything can go wrong. Below is a list of other risk involving scoliosis surgery:
Scoliosis Surgery: Potential Risks and Postoperative Care
· Death and neurological damage. …
· Loss of normal spinal function. …
· Strain on un-fused vertebrae. …
· Post-surgery pain. …
· Infection and inflammatory processes. …
· Curvature progression. …
· Decompensation and increased sagittal deformity. …
· Increased torso deformity.
Knowing all the risk involved plus seeing my son deal with pain on a daily basis, something had to be done. So we prayed on it, put our faith in God and decided to get the surgery done. The doctor said that the procedure was going to take 7 hours to complete. The thought of my son being under the knife and on anesthesia for 7 hours naturally had me a little worried. I must say my faith was being tested.
The night before the surgery Chad and I was sitting at the kitchen table eating dinner talking. You would think he would be nervous, scared or have some type of pre-surgery jitters, but he didn’t. Judge from his demeanor I could tell he didn’t have a worry in the world. I asked him, are you afraid? He said “no dad, I’ve been wanting to have this surgery for years”. He also said “at least the pain in my back will go away, plus when I go back to school I would not have to wonder if everyone is staring at my back”. Ever since he was 5 years old Chad had insecurities about the curve in his back. He also jokingly added, “the doctor said that I will instantly grow about 3 to 4 inches just from having the surgery, so I’m sure the girls will notice that”. We laughed and then got ready for bed. He had a calm confidence about him which made me feel more at ease. You can tell that he had faith.
The next day we arrived at the hospital at 5:30am. The surgery was schedule for 7 am that day. For 7 long hours me and his mother sat in the waiting room waiting for the surgery to be complete. During the wait there were some anxious moments, but we were not too concern, because we felt if Chad had faith then we should also have faith. Plus we also knew that God was in control, and it is God’s will. After exactly 7 hours the doctor came in the waiting room and said that the surgery was a success and Chad was in recovery doing well. Thank God!!
Fear the Catheter
What do you do when your faith begins to dwindle?
Most people that have an extensive surgery usually has to have a catheter inserted. Catheter’s are used to drain fluid out of the bladder. In Chad’s case the doctors chose to have the catheter inserted in his penis. While in recovery we were told that Chad had to urinate on his own within 24 hours after the surgery to avoid infection. If he didn’t urinate-the nurses would have to re-enter his peep peep hole and insert a catheter again, this time while he was awake. Ouch! Starting from the early morning rise the nurses came in the room every hour on the hours to remind us that they were going to use a catheter if Chad didn’t peep before 5pm. I guess you can say that his penis was on the clock. The idea of anyone messing with his penis drove Chad nuts. The hours came and went and Chad still had not peeped on his own. All day long the nurses tried just about everything to get him to pee. They tried running water, having him drink lots of fluids and even gave him a fruit to try and make him pee, but none of their efforts worked. He was more concerns about the catheter being re-inserted than the healing process from the surgery. This caused my son to have anxiety and you can tell that his faith was beginning to dwindle. Let’s face it no man wants any one touching their Johnson unless it’s for pleasure only.
I had to work that day so I didn’t arrive at the hospital until 5:30pm. which meant the 5 o’clock deadline had passed. Luckily, I mean faithfully the nurses did not start the procedure before I got there. At 6 o’clock the nurse walked in the room and told Chad she’s sorry but she’s going to have to put in the catheter back in. At this point I had to step in and show my faith. I told the nurse to come back in a few minutes. I walking up to my son while he was laying down. I told him to close his eyes and relax. I placed my hand on his stomach, closed my eyes and prayed. I had total faith that my prayers would work. In the middle of my prayers the nurse walked back in the room with the tools in her hand ready to insert the catheter. I asked my son to stand up and hold the plastic urinal bottle-immediately the pee begin to flow. He must have filled up 80% of the bottle. I’m not trying to say that my hands have the power to heel, but I will say that my faith in God does. You can tell that Chad was relieved, as well as appreciative that he did not have to have the catheter inserted . This may not be a big deal too many people but for us we were thankful and grateful that he had peeped. No one wants to see their child in any kind of pain, especially if it can be avoided. The point is-faith can also be transferable from one person to the next. You see initially Chad was the one with all of the faith and then he transferred his faith to me. Than it was my faith in God that transferred the faith back to him which helped him believe he could relieve himself. Chad is recovering nicely and he’s back on his feet. Thanks to everyone for their prayers and support.
The reason I shared that story with you is to encourage people to keep the faith regardless to what their religious beliefs, situations or circumstances are. Going back to my point in the beginning of this article about people throwing around the word faith all the time. I think it’s time for people to stop judging whether a person has faith or not. Some people act like they have more faith or are more saved then others just because they go to church every Sunday. In addition to that, many people walk around with crosses around their necks, tattoos of Jesus on their bodies, some even shout and act out in church just to broadcast or to advertise that they have more faith than others. I’m not saying that it’s all bad to express yourself in your own way, but don’t think that your scoring Kool points with GOD, he already knows your heart with or without the extra curricular activities. The reality is-God is not looking for that cross on your neck, or that tattoo on your body. And he’s definitely not looking for who draws the most attention in church or how often members go to church. All he’s looking for are faithful worshipers whether your a church goer or not. I can go on and on about faith but at the end of the day it takes faith for things to work in your life regardless. And since theirs no measure of how much faith a person should have-I’m just going to end this article the way GOD would want me to – Faithfully!!
Thank you for reading, Do share.