Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made



My body has this amazing ability to test “normal” even when it is displaying symptoms that are anything but normal.  This has been extremely frustrating over the years.  Recently, a friend challenged me to think of the situation a little differently.  She encouraged me with the verse Psalm 139:14 “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”  This really struck me.  I’m very familiar with the verse as the entire psalm is one of my (many) favorites.  However, I had never thought of it in the context of the unique way my body responds to things. Instead of getting frustrated, I need to choose to remember that God made me the way He did and my body is simply responding according the unique way God programmed it to do.  I need to remember that God is the great Physician and He knows exactly what my body is doing.  He can give me wisdom to know what to do to support my body and He can also give wisdom to the various physicians and other providers working to help me.  

This afternoon was another normal EKG in response to worsening of the chest pain.  Last week, it was a normal chest x-ray and normal blood tests.  I have had normal echocardiograms, normal lung function tests, normal CT scans, normal MRIs…the list goes on.  I have a very “normal” body that feels anything but “normal” and that forces me to live a life that is anything other than “normal.”  Who needs “normal” anyway?  I am unique and choose to rejoice in that fact!

Psalm 139 (NIV)
For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.
You have searched me, Lord,
    and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
    you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
    you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
    you, Lord, know it completely.
You hem me in behind and before,
    and you lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
    too lofty for me to attain.
Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
    and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
    the night will shine like the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place,
    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
    they would outnumber the grains of sand—
    when I awake, I am still with you.
19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
    Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
20 They speak of you with evil intent;
    your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,
    and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
    I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+139&version=NIV

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