21-Day Fast: Breakthrough Stories
by gingerhohm on May 21st, 2010
filed under Journal
I like dogs. I don’t have one, but I like them still the same. Years ago, I had an old bulldog named Snapper. You’ve heard the saying, “the tenacity of a bulldog?” Well, I think old Snapper invented that saying. For fun I would get an old rope or towel and swing it above Snapper’s head. Once he grabbed hold of it though, the real party began. Snapper would hold on for dear life! You could drag him all around the yard, shake him until his teeth just about fell out, and even pull him off the ground. That stubborn old dog would just hang there with his jaws clamped down on that old rope with no intention of letting go. Snapper was tenacious.
Snapper reminds me of my friend, Johanna. She and her husband have wanted a baby for a long time. Actually, she is five months pregnant at the time of this writing. Happy? That would be an understatement. Easy? Is anything in life? You see, this is Johanna’s third pregnancy.
In the Fall of 2009, Johanna announced the blissful news of her second pregnancy at our Life Group. We were all very excited and eager to meet God’s newest creation. However, that November our dancing turned into mourning as we heard she had lost the baby. I watched my friend cling to her faith and hold onto her Savior with the tenacity of my old bulldog. Was her faith shaken? I know it was. But did her hold loosen? Not one bit.
Johanna has fibroid tumors. This is why it has been so difficult for her to get pregnant and this is why it has been a problem staying pregnant. The Doctors told her the tumors were growing and would have to be removed in order for her dream of having her own child become her reality. The date was set. The surgery would remove the one thing that stood in her way. There was just one problem. Neither she nor her husband could find peace.
God speaks to us through peace sometimes. Did you know that? God has the ability to see the future; something we cannot see. If we trust Him, he will help us navigate through minefields we have no idea are in our path. God was doing that very thing by removing peace from this situation. My friend and her husband did the unthinkable. The night before the surgery, they canceled. This was one of the most difficult situations they had every faced. After all, not having surgery meant, more tumors, bigger tumors, and worst of all – no children.
A week or two later, Johanna found out she was pregnant. She then realized the reason for the unrest. Having the surgery would have terminated her pregnancy. Is that faith, or what? My friends clung to their faith with tenacity. The kind of tenacity old Snapper would have been proud of.
I have chosen to be faithful;I have determined to live by your regulations. Psalm 119:30