It’s not like I’ve never had prayers answered before. I see them answered all the time. But usually I at least have to finish the prayer before it happens. It is nice, though, when God just steps in and cuts me off and says, “Relax… I’ve got this.”
A couple of weeks ago my wife and I found ourselves at the end of our emotional rope. She had suffered several small strokes we didn’t know at the time were strokes, and after three trips to the emergency room, two hospitals and countless tests, we thought we were finally at a point where the doctors were going to give us the solution for what she needed. They had told us they would get put their heads together and then meet with us the next day to give us a plan of action. But instead, another test was ordered, and then doctors we hadn’t been working with came in and asked all the preliminary questions they ask when they aren’t familiar with your case. One of them then said, “OK, I’m going to show your pictures to,” and then he named a couple of doctors we hadn’t talked with or even heard of. He went on, “And we’ll get with you tomorrow and talk about your options.”
We both just sat there in silence when he left. And for about a half hour our minds just raced, wondering why we suddenly seemed to be working with a new set of doctors, and how, after so many tests and the promise of a diagnosis, we could be back at square one. Finally, I looked at the clock and realized I needed to go get the kids so they could visit, and as I got up to leave, all the emotion that had been building in Christi erupted, and we sat there, holding each other and asking aloud the questions we had been asking in our thoughts.
Finally we began to pray. I said, “Lord… we’re confused… and we’re frustrated…. Please help us to have,” and before the words answers and peace could pass my lips I heard footsteps. I looked up and saw the doctor we had been talking to about a half hour before, along with another doctor we hadn’t met yet. The new doctor asked, “Why the tears?” We explained, and he proceeded to show us the pictures of what was going on, and then calmly and confidently explained what they had to do, why it was the only viable option, and that he had done many of them. He said, “The only problem is that I usually try to hide the scar in a wrinkle, and you don’t have any!” He even managed to let us know that he was going to do it first thing the next morning, a Sunday, because he didn’t want to wait for Monday, without evoking alarm on our part.
When he left I felt like Jim Carrey in Bruce Almighty; I looked up and said, “OK, now You’re just showing off.” Psalm 34:4 says, “I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.” He’s proved that so many times in my life, but for some reason it’s the times He does it dramatically that I notice the most. When I get to heaven I’ll probably discover myriad times when God actually answered before I could ask, and I just didn’t know because I hadn’t gotten to the point I’d asked yet. That’s how good God is.
One of my biggest pet peeves is to be interrupted or cut off when I’m talking. But you know, He can do it to me any time He wants—I’m okay with it!