Kidney Stone...

I finally know what Paul's thorn in the flesh was... it was a kidney stone, just joking but I'm pretty sure if anyone had to guess I bet they would say that he was referring to a stone in the kidney. I recently experienced this elephant stopping pain over the past two months and trust me when I say "you wouldn't wish this upon your worst enemy(s)" but then again my only enemy(the defeated foe) could use some pain every now and again. When I heard women say that they would much rather give birth to a child than to pass a kidney stone, relief flooded my body because I thought that I was being a weeny due to the fact that I moaned and groaned. Though I didn't cry, don't think the thought didn't cross my thinker. So I toughed it out like a big boy should for about 3 hours but lets just say I wasn't use to this kind of pain and was later admitted to the emergency room. After x-rays and exams the doctors found that I was carrying a little boulder in my kidney. Now lets transition into the meat and potatoes for a bit. One might ask well Kevin how could this happen to a Man of God or shouldn't God have stopped the pain after you prayed for the pain to stop. These are the questions that plague our church even to this day only because we don't have an answer for every question or every situation. Much like Job I couldn't understand why this was happening to me and also like Paul where God said His grace is sufficient though he sought God to fix the situation but one thing for sure, I wasn't going to allow this attack to make my faith waver. Many followers of Yeshua suffer from all sorts of illness and hardship but what I realized is that we should never blame God but most of all dig deep enough to learn the lesson from whatever situation you face (good or bad) and get back to business as soon as you can. Now I know God did not place this stone in my kidney but I know God good enough to know when He may be testing me to see what would I do when pressed to wall with all odds against me. Will I quit, get angry with God, complain, magnify the problem rather than the solution etc. Trust and know that I did neither but what I gained from this episode was a fresh remembrance of the suffering our Messiah and many other men and women of God went through and the other was that I can do no thing with out Him but with Him the Milky Way is the limit. I vividly remember the night after I had surgery to remove the stone, pain gripping my body again and I immediately thought "oh no not another stone" but thanks be to God it wasn't it turned out to be some other complication caused by the removal of the stone. But here I am again with death like pain and my wonderful wife just had it to the brim with these attacks so she stood up from her chair and reminded me of the one who lives inside of me and what He did on the cross and that nothing should stop me from praising the Father; lets just say that when we began praising the pain left and a deep sense of gratitude came over me and I began to sob like a baby because I knew God was showing me that He was still in control and that when I call upon Him, He is there. What we must realize is that God does not think or respond to things the same as we do and moreover He does care for our well being but He cares more for our reliance on Him and not ourselves.

Always in Love,

Kevin and Deon