A Firetruck, Fortune Cookie, and Dealing with Fear and the Unknown

Have you ever gotten a really bad fortune cookie?  My father-in-law had a joke where he would open his fortune cookie and say, "Help, I'm trapped in a Chinese fortune cookie company!"  Today, We ate at a new Chinese restaurant.  When my son opened his fortune, it said, "Aren't you glad you just enjoyed a really good meal?"  This had me thinking about life.  How many times do you wish you could just open up a fortune cookie and know what was going to happen?  Last week, I had that moment.  Every morning, I heat a bowl of instant oatmeal in the microwave at work.  I set the timer and started working on some files.  I thought I heard the timer go off, but decided to keep working for a bit.  Suddenly, I smelled smoke.  As I rushed to the microwave, I saw smoke pouring out and my bowl melted to the bottom of the microwave.  What you need to understand is that our building is connected with the public schools, so when a smoke alarm goes off, it sends an emergency message all over the public schools.  If a fire truck showed at our building, which it would, there would be chaos!  I did the rational thing.  I ran through the building telling the other ladies that I was about to cause the smoke alarms to go off.  One of the teachers had her wits about her and took out an alarm battery.  She opened some doors and plugged in a fan.  I carried our smoking microwave outside.  We narrowly avoided setting off the smoke alarms and visiting with firefighters, but needless to say, I missed my breakfast that morning.  Wouldn't it have been nice if I would have opened a cookie that said, "Don't microwave oatmeal for 10 minutes."  or "Check your microwave often."  Instead I had to learn from experience.  This is probably one of the greatest fears we face- the fear of the unknown.  There are no magic cookies to tell you that everything will be alright, but there is a scripture.  Isaiah 41:10 says, " do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." These last few weeks have been tough for me.  My daughter has suffered from epilepsy for many years.  She visited the neurologist who is now suggesting brain surgery.  The idea of someone operating on my daughter's brain is terrifying.  My daughter seemed really stressed after the meeting.  I asked her what scared her the most.  She said, "I don't want a dumb doctor operating on me."  How honest!  I made sure she knew that to be a neurosurgeon, you would not be a dumb doctor.  But when I thought about it, I was just as worried.  What if the surgery changes my daughter's personality?  What if there are complications?  In order to proceed, they have to catch her having 3 seizures.  What if they are really bad seizures?  My daughter had one seizure in the past that almost took her life, so our worries are valid.  But this is where faith has to step in.  If I can trust God with my eternity, can I trust God with my now?  We are walking a path of the unknown every day.  We don't know when we will breathe our last breath.  We are unsure what will happen tomorrow, but we can know that God is with us.  We are not alone.  He promised to strengthen us when we are weak.  He will hold us up when we feel powerless.  So my family are facing an unknown future, but it is okay because we have a known God!  Stand strong and don't give up!  You serve a mighty God!  Have a great week high-heeled warriors!

Comments

  1. UnknownJanuary 28, 2018 at 7:44 PM

    Praying for you and your family. May God give you wisdom and peace.

    ReplyDelete

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