Blessed

It’s wonderful to have devotional thoughts from Erica Botha this week! You can learn more about her on our contributors page.

I had surgery last year to remove the right side of my thyroid. There was one additional nodule that was near my heart that the surgeon had to remove. The surgery lasted a little longer than expected because of that nodule, but it all went well. Not long after my surgery,

I heard the story another sister in Christ, Sue*, that had a similar procedure. Our experiences were very different. I felt as though I had an excellent care team and other than some annoying neck pain because of positioning during surgery, I did not have any complications. Even the complication of the thyroid nodule near my aortic arch was something that was not on my radar going into surgery but taken care of because my surgeon was unwilling to complete the procedure without making sure that it was taken out.

My surgeon visited me during my overnight stay at the hospital and was the doctor to discharge me the next day. Everything seemed pretty easy. Sue’s experience was more difficult because throughout the story the answers from the physicians were somewhat unclear and she woke up with blood in her hair. They had removed her entire thyroid. She had lost blood. It sounded like the opposite of what I had experienced.

                  Initially hearing Sue’s story made me extremely grateful for my experience and my surgeon. However, as I thought about being blessed to have had such excellent care, I wondered about God’s role in these stories. How do blessings work? I had believers praying for me and she did too. How come I had a better outcome? As believers shouldn’t we both experience blessings? I really struggled with this because I couldn’t imagine that she wasn’t blessed and that looking at my experience as blessed somehow made God both good and not good at the same time. He was good in my experience, but not good in hers. 

                  Then while doing Bible study with some friends the answers started to take shape. As believers, we are called to live lives that point others to God. Focusing on myself and my “blessings” took the focus off of God. It wasn’t that one of us was more favored than the other. It was simply that while we experienced similar situations, God had called each of us to walk a different path to point others to God. Her testimony spoke of the goodness of God despite unfavorable experiences.

As believers we share our testimony and our experiences. We share how God has shown up in a situation, but all too often we are focused on ourselves as the middle of the story. The truth is, God is at the middle of the story. We should be prepared to share what God has done and is doing in our lives. I Peter 3:15 says, “but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.”

As a Christian my life isn’t about me and the blessings that I receive. My life is about pointing others to Jesus Christ, the Savior. My salvation was bought with a price, Jesus’ blood. God is good regardless of the circumstances we experience.  

Sue* – pseudonym