Five years

On the 24th of this month, it will be 5 years since my appendix drama began. Who would have thought that something as simple as dizziness and confusion would end up becoming something so much more?

Not being a married person, I don't know what the appropriate gift for five years is, but having seen married couples, I do understand that fifth anniversaries are special occasions. I think it is because they understand each other better, know more about themselves than they did when they started and can look back and understanding things better than when they were first married.

And I think that I can relate a little (real little) to that. Because when you first go through something, the natural question is "Why?" Why am I going through this? Why am I alone?" Why, Why, Why...and a lot of time the focus is on ourselves. But looking back, if you have the right perspective, you understand why things happened, you begin to mature and grow and are able to share that with others.

One of the best ways to reach others with the gospel is not just in speaking, but in what happens to a person when something goes wrong. I'm reminded of a saying:"A message prepared in the mind reaches a mind, but a message prepared in a life reaches a life." And I get that now more than I would have five years ago. It would have been one thing for me to talk about how to endure through suffering, despair, etc..., but actually having gone through those things, I can give better insight because I have real-life experience and that becomes more of testimony because people cannot argue against something that ACTUALLY happened in a person's life...

So if there is one thing that I can say to paraphrase a famed quote: "Thank you, appendicitis, for  having been in my life" and thank you for being used of God to teach me things I would not have learned on my own!