Drawn to Himself

Nothing quite like a life threatening event to draw us to the Lord.

Especially when it involves your own child.

It's not the custom of The Hard Truth to relate personal stories about the blogs primary author and originator, but the impact of this last week on that person's faith and/or more specifically the need for faith gives testimony to our continual need for the Lord's care.

And for those of us who are blessed to have experienced few true life-threatening struggles, it becomes easy to be complacent and have a "that kind of thing never happens to me, so it won't" mentality. And this goes for complications during the birth of a child as well as any other big event. In his own words, our author describes the experience:

"Tuesday of last week my wife gave birth to our second little boy, Jace Christian. He was born via a Cesarean birth that was elective on the part of my wife after consultation with her doctor. This was done to promote the safety of the baby (my wife is tiny and the baby was large enough to make normal birth difficult, potentially hazardous.) This was my wife's second C-section so I knew what to expect. My wife was full term and it looked like things were going to go as smoothly as the first baby. Same hospital, same room, same doctor. Just different baby. I was ready and my wife was done being pregnant.
She was taken in to the operating room and shortly after I was brought in to sit next to her head and essentially be there to comfort and talk to her during the procedure. I had been in deep prayer over the birth just moments before, and felt like all was going to be just fine. I started to get nervous when things began to take much longer than the first baby had, and hearing the mumblings of the doctors and nurses didn't help. The stress in the voices was evident. The baby was born not breathing properly and lifeless and was taken immediately to the intensive care unit for newborns. With my wife on the table wondering what was going on, all I could do was pray and try to comfort her, all the while wondering what was happening to my child, whom I'd seen but feared I'd never get the chance to meet.
I was hustled off to the pre-op room and left there alone for what seemed like an eternity. Pacing back and forth it hit me that my son might not live. It was in this moment that I could think of nothing else to do but get on my knees and pray. In tears I prayed for the life of my son and asked God to be merciful to my wife and I and allow us the gift of this little boys life. Allow me to be his dad, and to live a life honoring Him in the rearing of my son. I asked for forgiveness for failing in so many areas of my Christian walk, and for the neglect I felt in my heart over the weight of sin that I so often refused to see and allowed myself to engage in, even though it grieved the Lord and hindered my faith.
Over the next two days, Jace grew stronger and was eventually allowed to spend the night in my wife's room. This greatly improved her condition mentally and spiritually and it was only a short time before we were able to bring Jace home. He was still weak and needed extra care, but I felt great that this was happening. It seemed God had answered our prayers. My heart was full of praise and I felt closer to the Lord than I have in a long time.
But He wasn't done with me. It seemed I needed humbling further.
My first night back at home, the great fear of contracting something while at the hospital hit me shortly before midnight. My stomach in knots, I broke into a cold sweat and collapsed in the hallway of my home with a loud crash. My wife and family fearing the worst placed me in essential quarantine for all of the next day as I tried to recover. With nothing else to do but suffer and stare at the ceiling in bed, I lamented my exclusion from being able to aid in care of my new son, my three-year-old son , or care for my post-surgery wife. It was as if God had taken me out of the picture to teach me a lesson of how much I truly need Him to sustain me."

God uses trials in our lives to teach us how to handle adversity, but greater than that, teach us about Himself. What can seem like life's worst moments can be our greatest joy when we use the hardships we face to trust in God, learn as he reveals more of Himself to us, and strengthen our faith. For the Christian, trials are really blessings that come into our lives to knock us off balance and remind us of the power of prayer, faith, and trust we have in the one who can do all things, the Lord.

"We thank the Lord that Jace is doing much better, his mommy is feeling better, and that He has trusted us with this little boy who has already brought us so much joy."

With renewed faith. Glory to the Lord.