Seeking Comfort in Prayer Among Chaos

I’m usually up before the chickens during the week and I like to enjoy a cup of coffee with my husband in silence before he leaves for work. After he leaves for work, I accept the challenge of motivating my two teenagers to get up and get ready for school.  As I sip my coffee, I think about my to-do list and chores I’d like to accomplish daily as a stay-at-home mom. I don’t know about you, but my days rarely go as planned. God always has a keen way of showing me his plans and not my own very early on each day! 

A year ago on a nice inviting spring day, my daily routine started out similarly except I wasn’t thinking about my to-do list.  I was thinking about enduring another long boring day on the couch.  A week earlier I had undergone a routine hysterectomy that was performed the day after Easter.  Everything went smoothly with the surgery, and I returned home later that day to the comfort of my couch and the wagging of tails from our 2 dogs.  I was placed on bed rest for a couple weeks following the surgery and my husband made sure I followed doctor’s orders.  Despite my unending boredom on the couch, this day did not turn out as I planned. In fact, by the middle of the day I was struggling to stay alive.  Well, you might think I’m being melodramatic being bored on bed rest but no, I found myself at the hospital early in the afternoon hemorrhaging in the ER as doctors and nurses frantically were trying to find the source of my bleeding. 

I was part of the .0001% that had suffered a very rare complication from my surgery and that caused my hemorrhaging.  As I lay scared on the ER bed a familiar friendly face appeared in the room.  It was a friend from church who I co-teach Sunday School with.  She had recently accepted a new position with an OBGYN office and was shadowing a doctor from her new practice. She graciously asked if it was okay for her to be there as we had a personal connection.  

It was a scene from a medical drama where the room is full of doctors and nurses focusing all their energy and attention on one patient.  I kept calling out for my husband as he was the only one able to comfort me among all the chaos. As the doctors were frantically trying to control the bleeding enough to rush me up to the OR, I felt my life draining from me due to blood loss.  I yelled out that I felt like I was going to pass out.  In that moment of being scared, I prayed silently to God to protect me.  This situation was obviously out of my control and in His.  At that very moment, after attempting to start an IV for the last half hour one of the nurses finally found a good vein to start an IV and he was able to start the blood transfusion.  

My friend and her seasoned co-worker were able to slow the bleeding enough to get me up to the OR.  As I laid in the cold white sterile room, I reached out to my friend and asked her to pray for me.  Without hesitation, she grabbed my hand and prayed for me as tears rolled down my cheeks. In that moment her prayer was comforting and reassuring. Her prayer was genuine and full of faith. You could tell that she honestly believed what she was praying.  Before I  closed my eyes for the surgery, I was at peace.  We both knew that God was in control.   

Philippians 4:6 NIV reminds us “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving present your requests to God.” That day, I had nothing to worry about because God only asks that I pray to him in my circumstances.  God didn’t ask me to say the right words or pray at the right time. He asked me to have faith in the knowledge that God will hear my prayers and answer them.

After my chaotic day in the ER, I was reminded to pray a prayer of thanksgiving daily to God.  The Lord has answered this and so many prayers over the years that I often take them for granted.  How can you learn to be thankful when everything is caving in around you? Colossians 4:2 NIV reminds us “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful…”  I have learned to see past my own plans and accept his path for my life.  I have learned to thank God in prayer for the blessings and unanswered prayers. There have been difficult days that I’ve prayed in between the tears rolling down my face and I’ve prayed for thanksgiving in joy in an unexpected blessing. This has truly deepened my relationship with God through prayer. 

I had nothing to worry about that day because God had a plan, however uncertain it was, he heard our prayers.  He was with the medical staff and me in that white sterile room.