Circumstances

This morning, Eleanor called from Dr. Feilmeier’s office in Omaha. Eleanor, if you remember, is the surgery coordinator for Dr. Feilmeier’s office. She’s the one that has been in touch with me periodically and walked me through all the necessary steps leading up to surgery.
Anyway, Eleanor told me that they have a cornea for me. She said that the cornea is in Denver today undergoing all the testing they do to make sure the cornea is suitable for transplant. She went on to say that the results of the testing will reach her office probably sometime late tonight, and she will call me Thursday morning to let me know. If the cornea checks out, I will be having surgery in Omaha early Monday morning.
As you can probably imagine, I’ve had all sorts of feelings and thoughts racing through my head all day. As soon as I got off the phone with Eleanor my mind started racing with all the plans and preparations I need to make for a trip to Omaha. So many different thoughts in fact, that I had a hard time figuring out what to do first. I had to just stop for a minute and pray for God to calm me so that I could do the things I needed to do.
That seemed to do the trick, and the first thing I decided that I needed was lots of prayer. So Joni and I started emailing people with the news. I told my family and the pastors at our church, while Joni got in touch with her army of prayer warriors across the country. Having done that, I soon came to the conclusion that everything else could wait. We really don’t know for sure, after all, that this is going to happen yet. That comes tomorrow, and then the real preparations can begin.
So this evening, I turned on the radio to listen to Charles Stanley, and his message tonight was about circumstances. It was based primarily on Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Yes, that’s the one where Paul says, “I have learned to be content with my circumstances.” As I looked over the text, I saw that chapter 4 of Philippians has some pretty good stuff in it.
Philippians 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer andsupplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Philippians 4:7And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:11 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.
Philippians 4:12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound in any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.
Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
The main point of Dr. Stanley’s message was that no matter what we are facing, our focus must remain on Christ, not on our circumstances. Who would know that better than Paul? Stanley also said something that I have said a time or two in my blog, If you take a look around you, you’ll always find someone whose circumstances are worse than yours. If you can do that, then I would guess you’ve taken a good step toward being content with your own situation.
So that’s the big news for today. I probably won’t sleep very well tonight, wondering what tomorrow’s phone call will bring. But who knows, it was a pretty exciting day and I’m a bit frazzled, so maybe I’ll sleep after all.
More on this later.