Carole's Story - The simple acts in a day
.Carole's StoryShare.. Tuesday, March 30, 2010 at 8:46pm | Edit Note | Delete
Most of you don’t know Carole; many of you never will. But she believes Jesus’ story as truth, she is a Christian claiming she is no different than the next when she approaches God. She prays coming and going throughout her days and sometimes feels God placing ideas on her heart on purpose. Some may call it her conscious, but I know it as the Holy Spirit. And on the afternoon of April 9th, she answered God’s directions. She answered them on my behalf.
Carole was on her way home from work. She has a type of work that can be both emotionally exhausting and rewarding all in the same few minutes, as she works in the realm of adoptions. This day was really no different than any others, as she drove on her way home from visiting a family. She was praying for this family as she drove the highway home through the busy Phoenix traffic, when she felt the Lord telling her to pray for another family. No details, just pray…..she did. As she did, she began hearing her voice speak. However, it was speaking in a language that she did not know. A language she had never heard. A language she didn’t even understand what she was praying for. But she had this over-whelming sense to pray, as there was a battle going on. A spiritual battle pressing on her, and her voice needed to be heard against the enemy.
As she finished praying, she, like many of us, thought, “Whoa. What just happened? Lord, what was that all about?” God simply said, “You’ll know before you get home”. Five minutes later, Carole received a text from my sister Erika stating, “Please pray for my nephew. He is in the hospital.” Once receiving the message, she simply knew, “OK, that’s why you had me praying God. But why in this language? I don’t even know what I was saying.” God replied, “You don’t know this family. You don’t need to know the details, but there is a battle going on for this little boy. I have already won the war, the enemy won’t get him, but you simply need to pray.” Carole again took that answer, but continued to pray through the night for this little boy. Each time he came to her mind, the same scenerio played out. She would begin praying in English, the only language she knew, and end up praying in this foreign language, the tired muscles in her jaw reminding her that she didn’t need to know the details, just the big picture of praying for this baby.
This baby, as you know, is our Dawson. At the time God told her to begin praying, he was 2 weeks old, 7 pounds and had a large amount of fluid building pressure against the brain tissue which leads to significant brain damage or death when left undetected. At the time Carole was praying, we were sitting in an emergency room, listening to a neurologist explain how and why we were rushed into the emergency room. Listening to a stranger tell us why he would be performing brain surgery on our son in the morning. Our bodies were listening, but our heads were spinning and our hearts were broken. The world as we knew it was changed. The world that we hoped for our son was broken. Only as I tearfully cried to God’s listening ear that night, did He know He’d already heard from many His children. He’d heard from Carole and many, many others on Dawson’s behalf.
All through the night, Dawson was brought to peoples minds and they prayed for him. All through the night I sat by Dawson’s bed praying that God would please, please spare his life.
God was there. God was listening. God was merciful.
Later in the week, Carole shared her story with my sister. She shared that every time since that day, when Dawson is brought to her mind, she prays in another language. She shared that God has placed it on her heart that God has incredible plans for our little boy. That there was such a spiritual burden placed on her heart that day that she couldn’t ignore it. God has plans for Dawson. He is going to make a difference with his life. That there is a reason she has been praying, and will continue to pray for our son. Maybe he’ll be a missionary. Maybe he’ll serve the hurting. Maybe he’ll change the world. Whatever the case, he has a story.
I was saving this story just for Dawson. A cool unique story just for him. I know we all have stories, so one shouldn’t be highlighted as more important or significant than another. But I also know by sharing our stories, we encourage one another. And by encouraging each other, our lives can be fuller. And although I don’t expect to be called home anytime soon, if I were, I wouldn’t want this story to stay hidden. This month, our Senior Pastor is challenging us with what if you only had one month left to live. What would you do in preparation to leave? There’s a ton of things that come to mind. There’s the selfish part, there’s the spiritual part, then there’s somewhere way more personal, somewhere where I want my kids to know my life was about Jesus’ work and theirs is too. I want to pass down the knowledge that Jesus takes the everyday, ordinary days of your life and weaves them through with others lives. Some days you’ll know the difference you make, some days you don’t. I’d want them to know that you’ll have those days when you sit alone in a room crying that God would hear you; that God would be merciful. Then you’ll have those days, like Carole, when on a simple, normal drive home from work, you’ll make a difference with a simple prayer. The difference someone is crying out for. The difference that God sees and hears. The difference that doesn’t really matter if you live a day, a month or 100 years. It’s a difference that is eternal. Whether you believe Jesus’ story as truth or not.
Most of you don’t know Carole; many of you never will. But she believes Jesus’ story as truth, she is a Christian claiming she is no different than the next when she approaches God. She prays coming and going throughout her days and sometimes feels God placing ideas on her heart on purpose. Some may call it her conscious, but I know it as the Holy Spirit. And on the afternoon of April 9th, she answered God’s directions. She answered them on my behalf.
Carole was on her way home from work. She has a type of work that can be both emotionally exhausting and rewarding all in the same few minutes, as she works in the realm of adoptions. This day was really no different than any others, as she drove on her way home from visiting a family. She was praying for this family as she drove the highway home through the busy Phoenix traffic, when she felt the Lord telling her to pray for another family. No details, just pray…..she did. As she did, she began hearing her voice speak. However, it was speaking in a language that she did not know. A language she had never heard. A language she didn’t even understand what she was praying for. But she had this over-whelming sense to pray, as there was a battle going on. A spiritual battle pressing on her, and her voice needed to be heard against the enemy.
As she finished praying, she, like many of us, thought, “Whoa. What just happened? Lord, what was that all about?” God simply said, “You’ll know before you get home”. Five minutes later, Carole received a text from my sister Erika stating, “Please pray for my nephew. He is in the hospital.” Once receiving the message, she simply knew, “OK, that’s why you had me praying God. But why in this language? I don’t even know what I was saying.” God replied, “You don’t know this family. You don’t need to know the details, but there is a battle going on for this little boy. I have already won the war, the enemy won’t get him, but you simply need to pray.” Carole again took that answer, but continued to pray through the night for this little boy. Each time he came to her mind, the same scenerio played out. She would begin praying in English, the only language she knew, and end up praying in this foreign language, the tired muscles in her jaw reminding her that she didn’t need to know the details, just the big picture of praying for this baby.
This baby, as you know, is our Dawson. At the time God told her to begin praying, he was 2 weeks old, 7 pounds and had a large amount of fluid building pressure against the brain tissue which leads to significant brain damage or death when left undetected. At the time Carole was praying, we were sitting in an emergency room, listening to a neurologist explain how and why we were rushed into the emergency room. Listening to a stranger tell us why he would be performing brain surgery on our son in the morning. Our bodies were listening, but our heads were spinning and our hearts were broken. The world as we knew it was changed. The world that we hoped for our son was broken. Only as I tearfully cried to God’s listening ear that night, did He know He’d already heard from many His children. He’d heard from Carole and many, many others on Dawson’s behalf.
All through the night, Dawson was brought to peoples minds and they prayed for him. All through the night I sat by Dawson’s bed praying that God would please, please spare his life.
God was there. God was listening. God was merciful.
Later in the week, Carole shared her story with my sister. She shared that every time since that day, when Dawson is brought to her mind, she prays in another language. She shared that God has placed it on her heart that God has incredible plans for our little boy. That there was such a spiritual burden placed on her heart that day that she couldn’t ignore it. God has plans for Dawson. He is going to make a difference with his life. That there is a reason she has been praying, and will continue to pray for our son. Maybe he’ll be a missionary. Maybe he’ll serve the hurting. Maybe he’ll change the world. Whatever the case, he has a story.
I was saving this story just for Dawson. A cool unique story just for him. I know we all have stories, so one shouldn’t be highlighted as more important or significant than another. But I also know by sharing our stories, we encourage one another. And by encouraging each other, our lives can be fuller. And although I don’t expect to be called home anytime soon, if I were, I wouldn’t want this story to stay hidden. This month, our Senior Pastor is challenging us with what if you only had one month left to live. What would you do in preparation to leave? There’s a ton of things that come to mind. There’s the selfish part, there’s the spiritual part, then there’s somewhere way more personal, somewhere where I want my kids to know my life was about Jesus’ work and theirs is too. I want to pass down the knowledge that Jesus takes the everyday, ordinary days of your life and weaves them through with others lives. Some days you’ll know the difference you make, some days you don’t. I’d want them to know that you’ll have those days when you sit alone in a room crying that God would hear you; that God would be merciful. Then you’ll have those days, like Carole, when on a simple, normal drive home from work, you’ll make a difference with a simple prayer. The difference someone is crying out for. The difference that God sees and hears. The difference that doesn’t really matter if you live a day, a month or 100 years. It’s a difference that is eternal. Whether you believe Jesus’ story as truth or not.
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