Spiritual Growth ....."Hand-crafted"

"Growth is hand-crafted, not mass-produced!" by John Ortberg

Rachel, our youngest daughter, recently shared this statement with us from one of her podcasts she hears when she runs her training for the upcoming marathon.

You know how it is when you get the right words at the right moment............you just want to savor it for awhile and let it soak in. We are in a perfect visual aid of such a statement once again. And it revolves around the Heart Hospital and all that entails for the whole family. If you have read my blog at all for the past couple of years, you are well aware that God hand-crafted some growth in all of us through Monty's 7 heart events in 7 days almost 2 years ago.....February 24, 2008.

Let me bring you up to speed, if you haven't known what has been going on recently. In December, Monty went in for his 6-month check-up, which included the ejection fraction test of the output of his heart..........the efficiency of the beat. Since he had been working out 3-4 times a week and working fulltime and feeling really good, he was so excited to hear a good report that his % had improved from the last one. But, in fact, the very opposite happened............it was worse. Not only that, but they were concerned and were recommending he get a defibrillator and pacemaker with the goal of it saving his life if he began having signs of another heart attack. But, against the advice of all three doctors, that didn't stop Monty from going skiing as planned when we all went to CO for Christmas!! I did mention that he was not feeling badly at all, didn't I?

Talk about "hand-crafted growth"!! God was getting ready to use all of this in each of our lives over the next several weeks. The short version of it all is that after some scheduling and medicine adjustments, the device was put in on January 19.......with an overnight stay and some various restrictions for the following four weeks. Then typical of Monty's "hand-crafted body" he didn't handle it very well and went into atrial flutters where he felt like his heart was pounding and racing all of the time, making him feel as though he had run a marathon every day!! He had no energy and was exhausted all of the time.

So once again, more meds to try to get his blood thin enough to keep him from clotting and having a stroke, which is one of the major dangers with atrial flutter. The decision was made that he needed cardio-version.........shock treatment..........to try to get him into sinus (normal) rhythm. But first they had to go through his esophagus and ultra-sound his heart, looking for any clots in the heart, making sure it was safe to shock his heart. This was done this past Monday, February 15, 2010. Within 2 1/2 hours we were back home with the report that he was in sinus rhythm, but that his heart was trying to pace itself, also, along with the pacemaker. With another medicine (that he had been on before for atrial flutter) the dr. was confident that he would settle down into sinus rhythm.

However, "his hand-crafted" uniquely-made body has not responded "normally" to anything done to him thus far. This was no different. Within a short time, Monty could feel once again the racing heartbeat and was not feeling very well. To complicate matters we had four of our grandchildren spending the night. Around 10:00, he began coughing a lot and getting very wheezy and short of breath. He came to bed and after checking his rhythm and blood pressure, debating for an hour whether we should go in or not, we decided he was getting worse quickly. By 11:30, our son Philip, had come over to stay with the children and Monty and I were in the ER. Sure enough, his lungs had filled up and he had pulmonary edema, commonly known as congestive heart failure.

So, after finally getting to a room about 1:00, the long night had begun of pulling the fluid off of him. The Father's "hand-crafted-growth" was taking place in all of us as this week has progressed and Monty's flutters have persisted, despite the variations in types and amounts of medications. The fluid is clearing up and so he is feeling much better. As of now (Thursday night), if he has not converted by the morning, the doctors are thinking of shocking him again. We each find that God is doing much in each one of us to show Himself to us and remind us that He is our peace.

Monty and I know that we are here for reasons far beyond the obvious.........his physical condition.................and that He is giving many around us the opportunity to see how we, His uniquely-hand-crafted-children, handle the hard things in life. All of us are experiencing the same trial, but from different stages of spiritual growth. So, learning afresh the truth of Ortberg's statement.....one trial, but the growth is not mass-produced......but rather hand-crafted!!