What Storms in Life Are Getting You Down?

By Sherrie Magee 5/21/04 ©

            So often we go through life, happy go lucky when from out of nowhere a strong storm comes passing through.  Sometimes these storms are literal, like the tornado that swept through Northern Illinois a few weeks back, but sometimes these storms are more personal, like the death of a child or a divorce.  What storm has touched down in your life lately?

In Matthew 8:23-27 (NIV) it says this: 23 Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. 24 Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25 The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” 26 He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. 27 The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”

            For me, there have been many storms.  I’ve survived rape, addiction, and divorce, but nothing hit me as hard as when my newborn child was very ill.  From the time we came home from the hospital we knew something wasn’t quite right.  After a couple of days she was still so yellow, and I wasn’t sure she was getting adequate nutrition from our nursing sessions.  After seeing the doctor we discovered she was jaundice, and had a heart murmur.  Looking in retrospect, both of those things were actually minor compared to what was to come, but it had scared me completely to see my newborn daughter tied to machines, getting her first echocardiogram, and laying in a special incubator for the jaundice.  By the time we had gotten to the hospital she was completely lethargic.  We felt so hopeless.

            Weeks had passed, and even a couple of months.  We were in and out of the emergency room with my daughter almost on a weekly to bi-weekly basis.  Today, I thank God for the nurse who had pity on my husband one night and asked to watch her at the nurse’s station so he could sleep.  That night she witnessed all the things we had tried hopelessly to explain to the doctors.  The next morning my daughter’s pediatrician recommended that we go see a specialist.  Upon seeing him we found out that yes, though she had reflux and needed to be treated for it, reflux was not the worst problem of all.  This wonderful doctor was the first one to truly listen to us.  Through this visit we discovered that one of her nasal passages was completely closed.  It’s no wonder she had problems nursing, since babies are nose breathers!  For so long I thought I was doing something wrong, and had even stopped nursing thinking I was causing her harm.

            The next specialist experience was horrid.  She agreed that my daughter’s nasal passage was blocked and suggested that we pass a tube through her nose multiple times per day to “train” the “membrane” to remain open.  Can you imagine how my daughter would have felt each time we came near her?  Instead of looking up to us in love and happiness, eventually she would come to expect pain and fear.  I’m glad my “instincts” told me this was wrong.  Even then, God was speaking to me.

            It took us one more specialists to determine her greatest problem yet.  After reviewing her CT Scan, we found her one nasal passage completely blocked by cartilage and tissue (not by a membrane, like the last specialists mentioned) and the other very narrow.  This led us to surgery to repair her nasal passages.  Our doctor barely prepared us for what was to come.  During the surgery he discovered that her cricoid ring, the part of your wind pipe under your voice box, was 1/3 the width it was supposed to be.  My three month old daughter needed a tracheotomy!  If we had listened to the last specialist, we never would have discovered this.  I praise God for bringing us to our current ENT specialist.  After the surgery, my daughter moved from the 20^th percentile for her age to the 90^th percentile!  Halleluiah!

            With all the anxiety caused by my daughter’s illness, I felt very uncomfortable whenever I was alone.  My husband was working third shift at the time which left me home alone many nights.  However, God was watching over me.  He let me witness a miracle.  An online, long-distance friend of mine who had always been extremely anti-Christian was all of a sudden going to church three to five times a week and reading the Bible with me over the phone.  I found a lot of comfort from the TV evangelists and from my friend who would read the Bible with me over the phone.  This led me to eventually seek out a church and I was baptized!  My church was awesome in finding a special helper to watch my daughter so I could attend service. 

The next seven months were filled with little sleep, around the clock specialized care for my daughter, daily then weekly nurse visits, tons of medical expenses, and a drastic change in income since I left work to be with my daughter.  Yet during that time, in all that chaos, not only did we persevere, but we decided to start homeschooling my oldest child.  I had all three children at home during that time, my newborn daughter, my toddler son, and my second grade son.  God helped my family find the courage, strength, endurance, and love to make it through that time stronger than ever.  It is clear to me that he was there, calming all of us, holding our hands through it!  Thank you, God!

 It’s in the lyrics to the song “Calms the Storm” by Scott Krippayne where he says, “Sometimes He calms the storm and sometimes He calms His child.”  When I look back at this time in my life and see the hardships, and the awesome successes, I have to admit that without God’s comfort, wisdom, love, and strength; we would not have been able to handle this storm.  No matter the storms in your life, look for God and you’ll see He’s there waiting to calm what needs calming.  He can calm ANY storm.  The key is to seek Him through the teachings of Jesus Christ!