"A Heart at Peace" part 2

“A heart at peace gives life to the body…” Proverb 14:30

If you haven’t read last week’s Part 1 of “A Heart at Peace”…please do that now. It will help set up this new series of blogs that we are jumping into.

As I mentioned last week, our family just came through a time of extreme pain (me), possible cancer diagnosis, major surgery, followed by weeks of rest, healing, and rehab.

Did I mention, NO CANCER was found?!!!!

That is true and we praise God for that, but we are about to find out that in a few short months, we would be tested again. This time, with our son!

God was just getting started building us up, emotionally, physically, and most importantly, spiritually. My “health crisis” was an opportunity to “practice” what we already knew in our hearts, that “God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above anything that we could ever ask or think…” Ephesians 3:20.

A horrific accident. On vacation. Miles away from our personal family and church family. My husband was the pastor of a church in Florida and we decided to drive to Oklahoma for a July 4^thcelebration with old friends and family. Hobart, Oklahoma was a small town with a dear, loving, church family that we served with for over five years. It had been several years since we moved and were anxious to see them all again.

Our oldest son, Jason, was in his second year of college playing on a football scholarship as a punter at the University of Florida.

His first year was a dramatic one. A blown ACL sent him to surgery and rehab for several months, missing the first season at UF. He worked really hard that winter and spring to get back into “kicking shape” for spring practice and winning back his position as starting punter for the fall season!

However, little did we know that he was unhappy there, confessing that it was a “party school” and he realized that he could not compete against the “peer pressure” of going out drinking every night. So, he decided to give up the scholarship and change schools.

Skip forward….a Christian school offered him a scholarship to come play football. Giving his notice to his coach and looking forward to a new school, Jason was ready to head a different direction than the rocky path he’d been on at UF.

Arriving in Hobart…..fireworks…..watermelon…..burgers on the grill…..old friends and good times!

Jason and his old high school friends went out south of town to open pasture land to shoot off some fireworks. The place was called the “3-2 bridge.” 3 miles south and 2 miles west of the main drag in town. The bridge did not have side rails to accommodate the huge combine tractors moving from one pasture to another. Fireworks ended. Then…………it happened! As they turned to walk off the bridge, Jason turned the wrong way, stepping off the edge of the bridge, falling over 30 feet into a dry creek bed full of huge, broken chunks of cement! The beginning of one of the most horrific times in my life! Little did I realize that God had been preparing me those few months before through my health scare. He was helping me build up my “spiritual muscles” through some hardships mixed with a lot of prayer. He knew I was going to need that divine strength to get me through.

Meanwhile, at the very same time this was happening, I was feeling very uneasy and an overwhelming sense to pray, asking my husband if we could kneel and pray over our son! Little did we know………………..but God……!

“Be worried about nothing, but give over to prayer…..go to God with your supplications, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ.” Philippians 4:6-7

Stay tuned….it gets really good next week!