The Goodness Of God

Since I have been back from Colorado I have not been bored! This last week has been plumb full of hang-outs, going away parties, the straw poll, cleaning, moving rooms, the Iowa State Fair and even a wedding! 

Katelyn, Stephen, Alex, Jenna, Laurie, and Kaitlin at the wedding reception

Stephen, Kaitlin, Alex, Jenna, Laurie at the wedding reception

Vance, Rachel, Matt, Jake, Katelyn, and I at the straw poll 

One thing that I never wanted to do was ride a motorized wheelchair, in High School I had to suck up my pride and ride in a wheelchair quite often so today I don't think twice about a wheelchair. However motorized was a different story. Well, I had the opportunity to kill more pride this weekend, my family and I went to the fair and since I can only walk about a block we decided to get a wheelchair. My mom went to pick it up and when she came back I realized she had gotten a motorized chair, at first I was like no way am I riding that around the fair. 

However praise the Lord for my sister, she was standing by me when she saw my feelings toward my chair for the day and she said how the motorized chair is actually a blessing. Where I may not like it, if I would have  regular wheelchair my family would get tired out from pushing me all day. My sister gave me a new perspective of that motorized wheelchair and I actually ended up having fun with it. It also made me think about if I ever want to just sit and wait for the Lord to push me around or if in faith I am using His strength to power my chair and accomplish what He asks of me. 

Me and my chair

Tera and I 

For thus says the Lord, "Just as I brought all this great disaster on this people, so I am going to bring on them all the good that I am promising them." ~ Jeremiah 32:42 

People go through all sorts of disaster it could be emotional, physical loss, damaged home, pain, or many more. As you know my disaster right now is Lymes Disease, this was filtered through the goodness of God filter and it passed the test in my life. I have been sick for a long time, the past six years have been off and on, but mostly sickness. Many days all I could do was get out of bed and move to the couch. This last phase of pain I never would have expected and I never would have thought I could endure it. But at the end of this phase I see the goodness of God. I see how He has used Lyme Disease to mold me more like His Son, to grow my faith, to stretch me. 

In lifegroup some girls and I were talking about how sometimes our faith is like a bungee cord, when your falling your scared to death but once you've been caught you are having the time of your life. The thing is with the Lord He knows how much I can handle, He alone knows how much I can fall before I need to be caught. Let me tell you this time I fell a lot further than I thought I could handle, but God knows me better than I know myself. 

It is only when the disaster strikes that you can see the goodness of God up close and personal. Lyme Disease took me further off the cliff than I had ever known was possible in my life but if I wouldn't have fallen that far to be caught by God I wouldn't understand the beauty of the healing process I have today. If you are in your disaster, know that one day you will see the goodness of God, one day you will understand why you suffered the way you did. But you may only understand these things if you understand the grace of God. If you understand your need for a Savior, your need to be caught. 

I have been putting off posting this but I found out on our Ozark vacation that another large strike has gone up against Lyme patients and doctors. There is a testing center where doctors from all over the country send their patients blood to be tested, it is where almost all Lyme Disease tests are done. A couple weeks ago that blood testing center got written up for doing too many Lyme Disease Tests. 

The scary part about this testing center being written up is that now because it has been written up they have control of all the information the testing center has. Many people believe that the only reason the center was written up was so that they could see exactly who was sending in tests and how many they were sending in. Lyme Disease is very political, and this sure does not help. Please be keeping Lyme Disease doctors, their practices, their patients, even their testing centers in your prayers. 

Prayer Requests:
*That Dr P. will be able to keep his practice in Iowa and turn to the Lord in the process
*That men and women would step up and fight for this political disease
*That the Lord will continue to heal me and I will rejoice over every step