By Melody Moore
They just wheeled my mom back for relatively major surgery. They are rebuilding her ankle and foot. It’s several procedures at once. Surgeries have never really made me nervous before. She had polio as a child, and this is her 24th operation on her legs. But Mom is now pushing 79.
A friend of mine recently died under anesthesia during a routine hip replacement. She was 80. My first thought wasn’t for her. It was for her doctor. I can’t imagine how it would feel to lose a patient under those circumstances. My next thought was about my mom’s upcoming surgery. I realize it’s a bit selfish to think about my own family before hers, but I think it’s human.
My friend knew her destination after death as does my mom. But still, I’m not ready yet. I know there’ll come a day when, ready or not . . .
One of my favorite phrases, people even use it as an identifier for me is “God’s got this.” He does. I say it a lot. I mumble it constantly if I’ve got a big stressor going on. It’s my go-to phrase when I’m reminding myself to whom I belong and who’s in control. Because of Him, because God’s got this, I can face those ready-or-not moments.
In the past year, “even if” has become one of my favorite phrases. It’s not something I say out loud often. It comes from Daniel 3:18: “But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
“Even if.” It’s a statement that helps build trust with God on my part. Just as important, it puts Satan on notice.
In context, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are about to be thrown into the fiery furnace. They know God can save them. They trust that he will. And I love this, they have the courage to say out loud to the face of the king who was ready, willing, and able to kill them: He is still God whether he saves us or not. We’re still not going to worship anyone or anything else. THEY TOTALLY TOOK HIS POWER OVER THEIR LIVES!! Don’t you love it?!
They seemed to already know what God was going to tell us in the future through James: “So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).
“Even if” this day does not go as I want it to, there is only one God. I will not worship anyone or anything other than the One True God. I will trust him. I will rest in his his good, pleasing and perfect will (reference Romans 12:2).
So I might be a little nervous sitting in this waiting room. But fear is a scheme of the devil. And he can stick it.
Update: Not only did God have it, he had it in a way ONLY he could. For the first time since she was 5, mom will be able to walk on the bottom of her foot.
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