It is Finished

My wife and I almost never fight.  We have been married for 13 years now and I can count on one hand the number of fights we have had.  But the night before my 3rd surgery we had one.

Looking back on this now its easy to see that this situation required so much of both of us – things that we weren’t accustomed to doing – that is pushed both of us to the edge of sanity.  I was dealing with pain, lack of sleep sleep, powerlessness and an uncertain future.  She was dealing with carrying the burden of having to do all the things that I used to do along with preparing both kids for the school year.  Any time there is a new adjustment in life – like kids starting school – there is an added stress that comes along with the change in routine and additional tasks that need to be done (preparing meals in advance, buying school supplies, ect).  But if you take that and add it to the chaos that was our life after my accident then one can understand how we were both beyond our capacity.

She told me later that these circumstances brought her back to a place of prayer and reliance on God because she had nowhere else to look.  It was either God help her get through this or she wouldn’t make it.  She came out of this in a new place with the Lord with renewed passion for worship and intercession.

We started taking Communion together every night.  I haven't mentioned this yet but at the very moment I was injured I was listening to Bill Johnson preach about the Power of Communion.  I really do believe this to be significant – as if God was giving me a key for the trial that I was about to face.  We prayed for my recovery and for our family every night and took Communion to seal it.  There is nothing more powerful than the broken Body and spilled Blood of Jesus Christ and this season was a clear testament to that.

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The day before the nurse came to take off the wrapping from the 3rd surgery, I was worshipping the Lord and was deep in His Presence when I heard a clear voice – though a very slight one – saying “it is finished.”  I believed this to mean that my big toe would be preserved and that it would not need to be amputated.

Up to that point my prayer was that I would keep my toe and I wasn’t concerned with what it would take for that to happen.  As far as I understood it this would involve the surgeon giving me a 4th surgery where a steel rod would be inserted into my toe.  I was told that this would mean I wouldn’t be able to bend the middle joint of my toe but I was ok with that.  My surgeon had talked to me a lot about needing to have “good skin” around the toe and that it would take time for it to get there.  After the nurse came and took the dressing off, I was allowed to wash my foot and I was very focused on rubbing off the dead skin (of where there was a ton) to help new good skin come in quicker. 

Since skin was all I needed at this point, I was very optimistic.  What I didn’t realize at the time I received the word saying “it is finished” was that the Lord had decided to just outright heal me so that no additional surgery would be needed.  But I will get into that later.

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I went to the doctor on September 1st (which also happened to be my wife’s birthday) and was given similar news.  I texted my friends about this update and was encouraged by the appointment.




The trip to the doctor was the first time I had left the house since the surgery.  And it was nice to get good news, but the very next day was going to be a troubling one.




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