Surgery Scheduled

But now, this is what the LORD says—
He who created you, Jacob,
He who formed you, Israel:
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are Mine.
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.

Isaiah 43:1-2

We met again with April’s surgeon Monday with the primary purpose of scheduling her surgery.  A date has been set.  She is on the calendar to have open heart surgery on Tuesday, September 27th.  Yikes!  That’s only two weeks away.  It’s go time.  And thus, we humbly ask for your prayers.

I will go into specific prayer requests in another entry, but the primary purpose of this note is to inform you all of the date and ask you to pray for this upcoming surgery.  We will be using this section of our blog to update as things progress, so if you’re looking for the latest, look here (http://www.ohmyhead.com/category/aprilsheart/).  It’s just easier than emailing out updates.  Hopefully this will be a short-lived section of our blog.  Also, you can subscribe to our blog if you’d like emails whenever it’s updated; just look on the right side of our blog.  (Note: When you go to confirm your subscription, it looks like it doesn’t work, but we just tested it and I think it does.  Mike will test it more fully in the next couple of days.)

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ASIDE:  Can I be honest here?  (The answer is yes, because it’s our blog.)  When we ask for prayers, that is EXACTLY what we are asking for.  I remember pondering one time a couple years ago the difference between someone saying, “I’m thinking of you” versus “I’m praying for you.”  (Let’s assume they are sincere in both cases.)  The conclusion I came to is that the first one doesn’t hold any power, but the second one does.  There has been a lot of hype lately on “positive thoughts” or “good energy.”  I’m not talking about attitude.  What I’m saying is that YOU sending ME positive thoughts doesn’t really do me any good.  I mean, thanks, it’s nice, but that’s about it.

In sharp contrast, I believe there is a ton of power in prayer.  Yes, God is sovereign, all-knowing and outside of time.  But somehow in His mightiness the Bible teaches that He hears the prayers of His children and acts accordingly.  That’s not to say that God is a puppet-on-a-string (heaven forbid we that we treat Him like a “santa in the sky” there to do our bidding); but there have been many instances in the Bible where He appears to “change” His mind based on prayer (Genesis 18:16-33 and Exodus 33 are the first two that pop into mind).

So, what I want to make clear is that when we ask for your prayer, we are asking that you humbly enter the throne room of God Almighty, El Shaddi, Jehovah – the God of the Bible – (wow, what a privilege that we can do that) and plead on behalf of our daughter.  Plead for her safety, for a successful surgery, for her life.  And plead that we as her parents would be all about HIS glory and not our own comfort.  Yes, I absolutely want God to use this to glorify Himself and make Himself known.  Many of you reading this are Christians, but many of you are not.  It is our hope and desire that April’s heart and our journey through this will be used to reveal the heart of our Creator to those of you that don’t yet know Him.  However, I confess that I want to put limits on Him.  Yes LORD, you may use her as long as… you spare her life… there aren’t complications… she doesn’t have brain damage… etc.  Unfortunately (fortunately?) He doesn’t give us that option.  And He doesn’t promise us that it’s going to be easy or that it isn’t going to hurt.  But He does promise us that He won’t leave us and that we won’t walk through it alone.  The Isaiah verse at the beginning of this blog has brought much comfort to me lately.  It reminds me that He doesn’t say we won’t walk through the water or the fire.  Honestly, that’s what I want it to say.  But it doesn’t.  What it says is that He is bigger than they are, and that they will not overtake us.  Does that make it easy to walk through that fire?  No.  But it means that there is hope and healing in doing it, and only when we do it in His strength will we truly know the power of living as a child of the Creator of the universe.