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Forgiveness: the Power to Overcome!
by
Ann Stewart
Wouldn't it be wonderful to have an instant formula
that would turn all your problems, hurts and fears into a
happily-ever-after outcome?
There are lotions and potions, medical diagnoses and hundreds of
articles and books written on feeling good and being happy. Yet, too
many of us are feeling loaded down, bent over and depressed due to
life's heavy demands on us. Thoughts keep screaming at us how we have
been maltreated, snubbed and gotten a bad rap! How can you be happy with
all this hanging over your head? After all, it's true!
Just today I called a friend to see how she was doing after a long
ordeal with doctors, hospital mistakes and lots pf pain. You see,
Marlene had not one, or two, but three brain aneurysms. Soon after the
procedure for the first one she was sent home with much pain and
discomfort. To make a very long story short, her doctor refused to check
into the cause of the persistent pain, instead telling her that "it was
all in her head" and that she would have to live with it.
It was only after much research and sheer determination that Marlene
found a team of doctors in another local hospital who had pioneered an
alternate, less invasive procedure to "loop" the other two aneurysms.
They agreed to work on her, and in the process it was discovered that
she had contracted the dreaded "hospital infection" which had progressed
to such a degree that by then it was too late to merely treat it with
drugs. The whole left side of her cranium had to be removed and the
membrane carefully rolled up inside in order to carefully remove it.
Subsequently the cranium was supported for months from within by
"spanners" to keep it from caving in, and eventually balloons were
inserted weekly for another six months or so to expand the shrunken
ligaments in preparation for the reconstruction of the left side of the
head.
Marlene was not a happy camper! During her ordeal her husband had left
her, she was in constant pain, and depression plagued her constantly.
Just as the end seemed to be in sight and a date was to be finalized for
the plastic surgery, it was discovered that once again the same
infection had recurred. Furthermore, she now had an inoperable brain
tumor! M.R.I. or brainscans were impossible because of the metal loops
and spanners inside the head!
Five more months of terror and exhaustion later, the doctor in question
finally acknowledged that the "tumor" was actually an object carelessly
left behind by them during one of their procedures. Marlene was suddenly
bombarded with advice from family, friends and strangers to sue the
hospitals in question and/or the doctors. After all, she had rights and
deserved proper compensation for all her distress that now spanned over
three years! In her bitterness she had been contemplating it for a
while.
During her ordeal Marlene had started looking into the Word of God,
reading it, believing it and ... relying on it. She had come to realize
that the more she thought about the negatives the more depressed she
felt. She did not want to sue, primarily as she did not want to prolong
the agony of having to endure all the bitter mental anguish again and
again during a trial. Today she declared to me jubilantly that for the
first time in this long battle she was now able to laugh. I can laugh
again, she reported excitedly, because I made a decision in my heart to
forgive everyone for their mistakes. The minute she had made that
decision, it felt as if a five-hundred-pound weight had been lifted off
her back. She was not the same person I had been trying to encourage for
a long time. It was not the old Marlene that had come back. No, this was
a Marlene who was totally empowered in the knowledge that forgiveness,
according to the Word of God, has indeed set her free! This was a gal
who can now laugh at her ordeal and truthfully say that without it she
would not have got the Wisdom, faith and power through that faith to
overcome.
Marlene is now living one precious day at a time, looking only at the
wonderful and good things in her life, being thankful for them, and
trusting God to lead her further. She is not out of her danger zone yet.
She still has to undergo the operation to remove the "debris" in her
head and then still the reconstruction of her skull. But now she is in
total peace, trusting, hopeful and convicted - not by mere human
intellect - that she is an overcomer.
About the Author:
Ann is author of With Wings As Eagles.
http://www.lifealteringwords.com/with-wings-as-eagles
Get her newsletter here:
http://www.lifealteringwords.com
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