Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Operating in the Background

I had outpatient surgery this week. It was a hernia. I didn't know what to expect when I arrived because the word "outpatient" made it sound so informal. I really wasn't expecting the whole official operating room experience, but it was definitely that.

They wheeled me in on a gurney, shifted me over to the operating table and stretched my arms out and strapped them down. I laid there staring up at two large lights that would be turned on after I was knocked out.

I was able to look to the left and right, and saw people busy at work getting ready for MY surgery. Two things went through my mind: 1. This was going to cost a fortune. 2. There were several people doing a lot of background work that I had no approval power over, was not asked about or informed of, and that I would never understand even if they tried to explain it to me. Even the nurse who was putting blankets and towels over my alarmingly exposed body had a very definite method to the application of each one. I remember looking at two green objects among the instruments being organized across the room that looked like funnels I would use to put oil in my car and wondering how they fit in to my little operation.

All this reminded me of the times I've told the guys in my class that even before we call upon God for help, sometimes before we're even aware that we need Him, He's already at work in the background. He's bringing about circumstances in other people's lives and arranging details in the world around us that will one day converge onto our path as an answer, or a remedy, a rescue or maybe even a reason. From our vantage point we can only look around at our circumstances and see things going on that we really don't understand and wonder in frustration how anything happening is going to help.

If I can't begin to comprehend what an operating room full of people are doing to prepare for and bring about my healing, how can I question what God is doing when I don't see results yet, or whether what He is doing is going to be of any help?

I do know one thing for sure. I know that I never doubted for a minute that everything those highly skilled people were doing was going to result in ultimate good for me. I wish I could say for certain that I put that same kind of trust in God, even though I know He is always operating in the background.