#Godissogood

Most of you know we've had a very eventful 3 weeks or so at my house.  Dad had a heart attack on June 12.  They attempted a cardiac cath at the first hospital we were transferred to, and then we transferred to Barnes in St. Louis.  At Barnes, we found out they had really done a lot of damage to Dad’s heart at the smaller hospital, so we had to wait for him to heal before trying to place a stent again.  Then he lost most of his strength & had to stay in a rehab/therapy program.

In the midst of all of this with Dad, I ended up with a pulmonary embolism (blood clot in my lung).  I had (what I thought was) a really bad Charley horse (which I get often), but my leg never quit cramping for 4 days.  So by the time I got home to my nurse practitioner, we found the clot in my lung.  Ahh…life.

I tried to post regularly on Facebook about everything taking place, because we were blessed with so many people praying for us that I couldn't keep everyone updated without Facebook.  I tried to convey how grateful we were/are for the prayers every time.  And because I’m young at heart J, I used hashtags in my posts.

Most of the hashtags had to do with being thankful, grateful that God has been with us through everything.  One that I used was “#Godissogood”, another was “#soblessed”.  I received a few messages from people with the main theme being that they were glad God was answering our prayers the way we wanted them, because their own family situations had not had good outcomes.  So, I wanted to clarify something.

The people that sent me messages were not mean people, they are hurting people.  People that prayed and feel as though their prayers went unheard by God.  Yes, I am thankful that Daddy & I are both still alive, and seem to be on good paths for getting back to normal.  But here’s the deal – I would still be blessed and God would still be good even if the outcomes were different!  God is always good!  Psalm 136:1 says “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!  For His mercy endures forever.”  And Deuteronomy 31:6  tells us “Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you”.  The circumstances in my life do not change God’s goodness!  Nor should they change my thankfulness to Him!  And I have His promise that He will not leave me…He’ll be with me no matter what is going on.

My mom had ovarian cancer and suffered tremendously until she saw Jesus face to face.  Through all of that, God was still good!  In the moments after she passed and I missed her and my heart hurt, He was still good!  If my dad hadn't survived his heart attack, God would still be good, and I would still thank Him for His mercy.  If my blood clot had ruptured and things ended differently, God would still be near and He would still be good!

Yes, there will be times in this life when life just stinks and is hard!  It’s reality, we live in a fallen world.  Sometimes circumstances will make it hard to thank Him, hard to trust Him.  But until He fails to honor His word to me, I will choose to be thankful – regardless of the circumstances.  And I will keep telling others that I know that #Godissogood and I am #soblessed because of His great love!