So, Thursday night our friends Tom and Lindsey come over to give us a date night. About 30 minutes before they arrive, I start getting this chest pain. I have never had a bruised ribcage or strain in my chest, but I concluded that somehow I must have strained it. I could only take in short shallow breaths. I have a high pain tolerance, so I just wrote it off as a mystery injury. I couldn’t remember lifting any heavy objects or roughhousing with the boys. Thursday night I could not sleep. I could hardly breathe in bed, and just the slightest adjustment in bed caused me to writhe in pain and increased my difficulty in breathing. The next day I went off to work and about 10am realized I had better go see a doctor. As much as I hate pain meds, it was really sounding like a good idea to be nauseated instead of getting stabbed in my lungs with every breathe I took. I went into the doctor at 11:30 and they took a chest x-ray and EKG to make sure I didn’t have a heart condition. After doing so, they concluded that I must have some strange strain. The doctor prescribed a muscle relaxer and some vicadin. I popped them right away and it did nothing. By 6pm the pain had gotten much worse and if I was even slightly winded I could barely breathe and became faint.
Reluctantly I admitted myself to the emergency facilities at the hospital. I am self employed so I am never excited about the co-pays on top of my insurance premiums. After taking an x-ray they found that I had bacterial pneumonia! I guess I was relieved that this mystery had a name and we could now take a course of action against it. How do you get pneumonia at 33 years old? I thought it was caught by the feeble and elderly! I am perplexed by how many things can go wrong at the same time in life. Especially in the light of what we have set out to do, obey the word of the Lord. As much as I can even teach on enduring contradiction after receiving a word from God, going through it certainly is another matter in itself. Warring over the prophetic words you have recieved, fighting the good fight of faith, resisting the devil, standing when you have done all, withstanding weariness is a life consuming season for me right now. I have no doubts that God is going to take us through this season victoriously. We might come out with just our lives intact, but we will come out ready to see His church established. I knew stepping out into this would be the battle of my life. Sometimes I wonder just how long it will take to see a breakthrough. I am determined to make it through with joy, and full of faith in God’s goodness. I would have to say that I have been afflicted in my emotions, physically and in life circumstances like no other time in mylife. Thank God, that I don’t live by my emotions or circumstances or physical condition, I live by the word of God. Honestly, I wouldn’t have made it out of the gates if I didn’t believe the word of the Lord. God is bigger than anything I am facing in life and that is enough for me. Even though life seems to be so much louder than God, He will never forsake us. I can find Him in the stillness, and I know when I come forth, my faith will be stronger, and I will have a greater capacity to obey the Lord and see a harvest for His glory. I just pray I am getting close!
