Dear Heavenly Father,

I am so sorry... I am sorry because I feel as though I have not thanked you enough. What you have done for me in the past year is something that is deserving of more than a thank you here or there. I mean you answered my prayer! Albet not in the way that I may have imagined or even wanted from time to time, but you kept your promise. You say, "Ask, and it will be given to you..." Well I asked for you to use me in "whatever" way you could for your Kingdom. How was I to know you would be sending me to the hospital? Because the doctors couldn't make sense of my levels, it opened an opportunity to say that it must be You. Or how about sitting in dialysis for nine months, that too opened opportunities to share about You. And now after the transplant, whether it be through the media or through conversation, people are hearing who you are and what you have done. I think I can confidently say that you are using me for your kingdom.

Now Father I must again appologize because I am beginning to become impatient. You have healed me so quickly that I am looking to the future and what I will be doing. I need your help in focussing not on what I want, or what I think is best, but on what You want. I do not want to be like the sheep whose master is leading it down a path towards a magnificent mountain stream, and instead of trusting and waiting for the crystal clean snow-fed waters below, stubbornly stops to drink from the small muddy puddles beside the trail because it thinks it best. I need your help trusting where you are leading me and being content with that which you provide.

God, thank you for those that you have put in my life to walk alongside me during this time. If it were not for their constant support and trust in you, I would be having a hard time during this season. I know that you are concerned with so much in our world and for you to be so personable with me and my situation still blows my mind. I am so thankful.

Amen

Happy New Year!
and a belated Merry Christmas!

As the ball drops on yet another year, I hope and pray that as we look back on 2006 we can do so with a sense of Thanksgiving. For some of you this past year has been the best of your lives as you start your lives together as newlyweds or begin families with newborns. And I know that for some this past year has not been a good one.

For you I want to share something that I read the other day. I was reading in James and he basically begins his letter by encouraging those who are in trouble. He says, "whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything." I thought this was really cool for a couple of reasons. The first being that James didn't say if trouble comes your way but whenever it does. This is a correct assumption on his part that we all will have some troubles in our lives. But he also says to let it be an opportunity for joy. I think the point has more to do with our perspective on the situation.

It is very easy to look at a troubling situation and throw your hands in the air in utter despair. Trust me, there have been plenty of times that I have wanted to do that. But from the very beginning of my "kidney-less journey" I have tried to remind myself that this has been an answer to prayer. For those of you that have not read previous posts, before any of this began in Feb. I had been praying that God would use me as a tool for His glory. I believe He answered that prayer, oddly enough, by putting me in the hospital and sending me down this journey. So my perspective has been what good of a tool am I if I respond in despair? Instead, I have tried to, "let it be an opportunity for joy." I do this by being thankful to Him and reflecting all praises back to Him.

So as you begin this new year I would encourage you to add to your list of resolutions that, "whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy."

Have a Happy New Year!