Testimony from my friend Jodi...

Hello my friends,

I wanted to share this story a week ago, but temporarily forgot about it until mid week...then with the Blog Hop and other things going on, I decided to wait until today...

I have a dear friend who has an amazing testimony of God's provision and grace. Jodi shared these words of encouragement last week and I wanted to share them with you. Her son Luke has been suffering from an illness for several years, you can find out more here...

www.caringbridge.org/visit/lukehentzell

Yesterday was not a good day. It is good to put it behind us as we hope for better. After we received the awesome news about Luke's MRI, his face fell and he asked what was wrong with him then? All of us, Luke especially, needs answers. While we praise God for the normal MRI, we beg for relief from pain for Luke. During the day, I began to hope things were improving. He didn't need pain meds until 2pm -- it hurt but was manageable and he was truly happy.

Last night, for the first time, the narcotic didn't work almost at all. We have so enjoyed the hours in the evening where he can run and play pain free with a huge grin on his face. I found myself marveling and watching him each evening just praising God that he could smile. Watching the girls and praising God they were not in pain. He did get some temporary relief (about an hour?) last night but we've become accustomed to seeing him acting like himself for at least a few hours following us giving him drugs.

Then I made a medication error and gave him oxycodone instead of ibuprofen. We are supposed to be limiting the oxycodone to every 4 hours. But he was able to have ibuprofen as well. So, I went to get ibuprofen and said "this never works anyways, I'll just start with the oxycodone". The routine is to do ibuprofen and if it doesn't work, do oxycodone an hour later. But yesterday it was 2 hours between medications. WELL, that made him giggly. As he lay there and I had to carry him to bed, he said "it still hurts" giggle and I said "but you don't care do you" and we were laughing together. Praise God, he slept through the night -- probably passed out from being overmedicated. We hope it was a blessed relief from the nonstop pain. At least, I hope and pray bedtime is comfortable for him.

Luke's spinal is this morning. We have not spent much time worrying about it and are VERY hopeful that we will hear he is still in remission; however, facing it today has been more difficult than I thought. We are feeling nervous and unsettled.

This morning, as Shawn left for work, I felt my stomach hurt and wanted to shout - don't leave I need you. Shawn is so often the rock I lean on. I am so volitile but he is so sturdy and calm. (understatement for those of us who know me).

Anyways, I suddenly stopped and realized, my rock has not left. I am never alone and I turned to my Bible. I have just been reading where led and this moring, I received such an obvious word from God. In light of yesterdays great news, I have been unwilling to be entirely honest about the fact that I am personally crumbling under the weight of Luke's pain. Seeing my child like this is simply tearing me into shreds. I didn't want to put a damper on everyone. BUT I have been open a little in private.

Anyways, I grabbed the Message this morning and opened to 2 Corinthians 4 - I love 2 Corinthians. It's so full of struggles and often speaks to me just when I need it. As I read, I felt my heart change. I KNEW I needed to share this.

vs 1 "Since God has so generously let us in on what he is doing, we're not about to throw up our hands and walk off the job just because we run into occasional hard times. We REFUSE TO WEAR MASKS and play games. We don't maneuver and manipulate behind the scenes. . . . rather, we keep everything we do and say OUT IN THE OPEN, the WHOLE TRUTH ON DISPLAY, so that those who want to can see and judge for themselves in the presence of God. . . .

" Empahsis -- over the past 4 years, one thing God has gently pushed me towards is transparency. That a window doesn't shine unless it's clear. And that it's not my job to shine, it's my job to be transparent so Jesus can shine through me. That was my answer. I had been hemming and hawing and praying about whether to post how truly difficult this situation is becoming for us.

vs 5 "remember , our message is not about ourselves; we've PROCLAIMING JESUS CHRIST, THE MASTER. All we are is messengers, errand runners from Jesus for you. It started when God said, 'Light up the darkness!' and our lives filled up with light as we saw and understood God in the face of Christ; all bright and beautiful."

vs 7 ""if you only look at US, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ORDINARY lives. That's to prevent anyone from confusing God's incomparable power with us. As it is, there's not much chance of that. you know for yourselves that we're not much to look at.

vs 8 to 10 (which have been some of my life verses for a long time) "We've been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we're not demoralized; we're not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we've been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn't left our side; we've been throw down, but we haven't been broken. "

(emphasis mine - that is our biggest thing - we don't know what to do to advocate to get our precious child help)

vs 16 to 18 "So we're not giving up! how could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hards times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There's far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can't see now will last forever."

Some of you are facing tremendous difficulties today. Maybe you have financial difficulties or marital difficulties. Maybe you are in a rut and just can't get out of it. Each of us has our own troubles. We have friends facing difficulties beyond what we can imagine. Right now, we have friends still struggling under the weight of a lost child (or children). We have friends with a child on hospice, friends whose child is fighting for their life, friends making decisions about quality of life care for their child, friends who have one oncology child who have yet another being referred to oncology for an unknown abnormality. There is a gentleman from our church hospitalized right now due to his cancer. Everywhere there are trials and tribulations, problems that seemingly have no solution. If you have one of these problems, I promise you GOD IS THERE. And our prayers are with you.

WHEREVER YOU ARE, Jesus is there. He promises to never leave us or forsake us. May each and every person reading this post feel God's grace encompassing their lives today. May His peace surround your heart and soul. NO matter what the trial what the situation, we pray that you would meet God today.

Jodi has given me permission to share this. I hope this blesses your heart today.

Because of Jesus' Love,