Life Interrupted

This evening I will be heading over to the home of one of the participants from our church. She is about my age and is scheduled for a mastectomy on Wednesday morning. She's struggling with the interruption of her life. And, I can't say that I blame here. It's one thing to see something coming years off; it's another to just have your life turned around in one day. This was not what she was expecting for this year. She was expecting her practice to expand and a wedding to be planned. Instead, it's weeks filled with apprehension and doubt.

I will be going over to pray for her based on James 5:13-15 (NIV) "Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven."

I can exegete this passage along with the best of them ... but it is still a mystery to me. I'm going in obedience to God's Word ... not because I completely understand what James is saying. I realize that there is nothing "magical" in laying my hands on another. I am well aware of my impotence. I have to conclude that this is what God wants. The realization that man - by the shear dint of his or her will - cannot effect a change. It has to be something that God does.

I still rest my hope on Jesus words in John 9:3 (NIV) "... but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life." I'm praying that into the life of this woman.

2 Kings 1-2