By Rhonda Stinson
It was the final night of VBS at my church when something unwanted and unexpected happened. My friend and I sat down after performing the puppet show and, suddenly, a terrible and painful burning sensation began in my upper chest. A sharp pain went down my left arm and I got so nauseated that I thought I would vomit. As soon as the nausea eased, I rushed to my sister-in-law for advice. “Get to the hospital quickly,” she said.
There aren’t many things that scare me, but this did. It was the unknown. Not knowing whether I’d die on the way and not knowing what life would look like after a possible heart attack scared me. My prayer on the way was that if it was my time to depart that God wouldn’t allow my family and friends to spend their lives grieving my death, but to rejoice in knowing that I was with my Heavenly Father.
After arriving at the ER, I was transported to another hospital because of an abnormal EKG and other abnormalities. While in the hospital, I began journaling what doctors and nurses said about my treatment and health. I then began writing down ways that God was working through me to bring light and humor to hard-working medical staff. Journaling about God’s work in my life has become routine for many years. This allows me to look back at God’s faithfulness, love, and patience when I need encouragement and faith.
I began to call each encounter with God a “standing stone.” Each “stone” is a reminder of God’s work. There’s a song with the lyrics, “Your ways are higher than mine, I want mountains to move, You want me to climb. So I’m gonna trust Your work, Your will, and Your time. Your ways are higher than mine.”
Did I want to be poked with needles a thousand times because of problems tapping into the blood supply in my veins? No way! But I didn’t scream or complain. I stayed pleasant and reassured despite the pain. They saw God’s ways. They even thanked me for being so gracious because most patients get angry.
God has a plan and a purpose for everything in your life and in mine. I find that the most turbulent times are the ones in which I experience God’s presence the greatest. My senses are heightened as I cling to Him.
These moments are what I call “Joshua moments”.
“When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight. “So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean? Tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever” (Joshua 4:1-7).
“Cast your burden on the LORD, and He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved” (Psalm 55:22).
God’s ways are higher than my ways. I walk forward in faith while looking back upon my “standing stones.”
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