19 Feb How To Survive God’s Surgery
Are Surgeons Good or Bad for You?
I have awakened from four different surgeries in my life feeling truly awful. In one case, my knee hurt, in another, my abdomen hurt, in two others, my shoulder hurt. Mentally, I was in a fog, unable to think straight. I was physically distressed because of the anesthesia.
I was hungry because I had not been able to eat since the night before – at the surgeon’s instructions. I could not leave my bed. I could not go where I wanted to go, I could not do what I wanted to do. All because of what those dreadful doctors did to me!
If my immediate happiness had been my top priority, I would have concluded that the surgeons had failed me. Or that they were not good people. Or that surgeries were bad things. I mean, what gives when you go to someone for help, and you end up feeling worse?!?
If I only take into account how I felt immediately after my surgery, I would not have a positive view of surgeons, and I would not have anything good to say about them to others.
On the other hand… if I take a longer, broader, more comprehensive view, I realize that I am now able to walk, I am now able to use my shoulders, in fact, I am now alive, because the surgeons had a higher purpose – a higher good – for me than my immediate pleasure and happiness.
One surgeon repaired my knee after a sports injury, and I can now walk. If he had not performed the surgery, I would not be able to walk.
Another surgeon repaired my shoulder… two different times after two different accidents to the same shoulder… and I now have full use of my shoulder. Had it not been for his surgical repair, I would not be able to lift my arm above my shoulder.
And finally, when a surgeon removed my appendix, he saved my life! The infection was so severe that without its removal, the infection would have eventually killed me.
So, when I look beyond my immediate pleasure and happiness to my ultimate welfare, I readily admit that, while the surgeries were very unpleasant from beginning to end, I am glad I had them. If I had it to do over again, I’d have every one one of them again, knowing full well the price I would be paying. And I am grateful for well-trained doctors whose knowledge and skill routinely restore people’s well being to them. In the end, I conclude that my surgeries were good things.
Is This How God Works?
I think this is a parable of how God works.
I’m not saying that my life has been harder than anyone else’s. I’m just saying it has been harder than I thought it was going to be when I was young. God, in his (as C. S. Lewis described it) severe mercy, has performed major surgery on me many times to remove and repair things that were keeping me from spiritual health and strength… using physical, financial, circumstantial and personal trials as surgical instruments.
And, as in my physical surgeries, I readily admit that, while God’s surgeries have been very unpleasant, I am glad I had them. As I focus on the eternal benefit over the temporal pain, I recognize that the surgeries have been good things.
If my immediate pleasure and happiness were my top priority, I might easily come to the conclusion that God has failed me, that God’s will is a bad thing, or that God Himself is not good and cannot be trusted.
In fact there are many people who have come to those very conclusions.
An inability to reconcile the goodness of God with suffering in the world… and in one’s own life… is often the reason people reject God. However, that is a shortsighted perspective. It doesn’t take into account the long-term benefit.
God’s Profit and Loss Statement
An accountant cannot draw an accurate profit and loss statement until he has recorded all the deposits and all the withdrawals. To tally an account before all the figures are in is an automatic mistake!
In the same way, the goodness of God must be determined in light of the end of things, and for the Christian, the final tally is not made until we stand before God in heaven and receive our final reward.
In the great “Hall of Faith” chapter in Hebrews 11, the writer of the book of Hebrews tells of believers who were tortured, flogged, stoned, sawn in two, and killed by the sword. Yet, God’s goodness is never questioned. Why? Because,
by faith, we wait until the end, when the final deposit is made to all of our spiritual accounts.
The apostle Paul writes, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” (Romans 8:18)
That is going to have to be some “glory” to offset being flogged, stoned, and sawn in two! Apparently it will be!
Conclusion
In the 2016 Olympics, Michael Phelps closed out his historic career, having earned a total of 23 gold medals, more than any other Olympian in history. To earn that historic number of gold medals, Michael Phelps invested an historic amount of time.
In fact, his coach reported that before the 2004 Olympics, Michael Phelps practiced 365 days a year for six years! If the tally were taken before the Olympics… if the only thing he had received was the drudgery, pain and isolation of training… it would not have been worth it.
But in the end, Phelps acknowledged that all the effort was more than worth it. The memory of the drudgery, the boredom, the pain, the fatigue, the missing out of a normal life, dissolved in the strains of the National Anthem rising with the American flag over the medal stand.
So it will be for the Christian. The final tally for our life will not be taken until we receive our eternal reward, and like being on the Olympic Medal stand, all the suffering to get there, severe as it might have been, will fade away with the strains of songs of worship and praise lifted to God.
How do we survive God’s spiritual surgery? By focusing on our eternal wellness after recovery.
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