Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Nov/79

Contributor - Harvey van Farowe

Title - Before and After Surgery

Topic - Health

How often we learn through personal experience that God is teaching us through the events of our lives. We share our thoughts with you because all of us are in God's Training School. By sharing we help each other to accept God's teachings. (The following excerpts are from a sermon I preached.)

My wife was found to have a very small tumor which showed up on X-Ray. The doctor was very encouraging and guessed that it was 'benign'. But he scheduled surgery. "You see, we don't have 100% faith in our own diagnosis!"

Thoughts Before Surgery

What does a husband feel when his wife is to have surgery? First, I felt sadness and concern. Is it going to be cancer? It may not be, but you don't know; therefore you are anxious.

My grandfather had to surrender into God's hands, two wives who were still young when disease struck. There were two children left mother-less when his first wife died. He married again and he had three more children with his second wife. She was not yet 39 when illness forced her to release her grasp on life. The youngest child was still a preschooler when she died. (He later became the pastor of the Exeter and Leamington Churches in Ontario.)

I knew that I must trust that God would work even this, out for good. "The hand of our God is on all them for good that seek Him and His ways." (Ezra 8:22) I realized that I must seek Him and let Him decide what was "good" for me. Some frightening things can be called "good" if they have good results in the long run.

I discovered two things that were "good" in this experience. Our marriage was enriched, and our church experienced the closeness of fellowship in prayer.

We Expressed Appreciation

Marriage as God planned it for two Christians, is a very close bond. Too often our relationships get strangled by the wash and wear, of living together so closely. And we fail to reach the New Testament ideal.

We show our inability to reach the New Testament ideal by our unloving attitudes at home. We may be quick to criticize but slow to express affection. We may run a partner down in front of the children. Sometimes we express feelings of malice or bitterness. (See Col. 3:19) Love is to replace bitterness, that is the ideal and any unloving attitude is sin.

My Bible told me to be "tender-hearted" I asked myself, am I showing the tenderness and love that Christ demands of me? When you are faced with the possibility of sickness, it clears your vision.

You try to imagine your life without the partner that God gave you. You see strong points in your mate, instead of the weak points that you were irritated with at other times. When your shortsighted vision takes in a longer view, the faults become microscopic in importance. So, we expressed our appreciation for each other. That was good.

We found fellowship in prayer

The second "good" that God worked out in our church here, in Westfield North Dakota, was in the expression of concern in united prayer.

As a minister, I sometimes shy away from the demand of James 5:13-16 that we get the elders together, to pray for the sick. (And the sick one should request this.) I didn't ignore or by-pass the Lord's Prayer in my sermons. I didn't ignore or by-pass the 23rd Psalm. I did ignore and by-pass the command that we pray officially for the sick. "The Prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up." (James 5:15).

You often take an expressway to by-pass traffic and congestion in a city. But there is one by-pass we must not take. There is no short-cut to fellowship. The closeness we felt as we were obedient in prayer, was precious to us. We reach this closeness by listening to sermons together and we find fellowship when others as well as the minister pray aloud. We sensed a unity of concern, and spoken desire. We were sure that God had heard us.

At evening, e'er the sun was set, The sick, 0 Lord, around Thee lay. 0 in what diverse pains they met, 0 with what Joy they went away.

Once more 'tis evening, and we, Oppressed with various ills draw near.

What if Thy form we cannot see? We know and feel that You are here.

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