I had a bone graft yesterday on my upper jaw. When I asked the surgeon to explain a bit about what he was going to do, it all seemed so simple. I won’t go into details, as it was pretty gory, but the surgeon told me recovery was very minimal. I know better than that…I arrived in the office yesterday morning prepared for the worst and hoping for the best. The procedure began innocently enough, with only about 5 shots of localized novocaine. I knew things were going to be rough when the surgeon zeroed in on my mouth with a scalpel without letting the novocaine numb my mouth- 20 minutes later, after some intense moments of “OH GOD, THIS HURTS! HELP ME!”-kind of silent prayer, the surgeon was packing my mouth with cotton and asking me to come back in two weeks. I had some yummy applesauce for lunch and chocolate pudding for dinner, with some soup on the side- I saved the vanilla pudding for today’s dinner. My mouth is sore, as the surgeon predicted (upping the recovery time a bit after he saw what he had to do to pack the bone in tightly), and when I eat or talk, one of the incisions gets irritated and begins to bleed. Ugh! How irritating that something that seems so small and simple can change my life so drastically, if even just for a few days!
I have found that the same principle applies to house repair as well. I decided to paint some shelves outside, so I knew I needed to take the shelves, paint, and a brush outside. Simple! Something I can DO! Easy! Ha. I picked a windy day, and set up in an area where the sun was beating down and the bugs were swarming. I am sure that if the neighbors were watching the spectacle, they got quite a show- swatting bugs and shading my eyes turned the painting job into some tribal dance designed to pity women who are up to their eyes in stupid ideas. So much for a simple idea…the shelves got done, sure, but not quite as easily as I had hoped!
The notion of being of Christian is very simple- follow God! Ha, done! Although in reality, like surgery, home repairs, and tons of other stuff in life, being a Christian doesn’t always turn out how we think it may. Why? God is in charge! We may have very direct ideas about what will happen, but God is present always, sometimes opening doors we never thought would be opened. When I think about how my life was a little over a year ago compared to now, I can’t believe the difference! It seems that just when you think you have your life figured out, God shows up to change it in the most amazing ways!
-Stephanie
Ancient Living 