All Circumstances

We woke up to an urgent phone call this morning.  So we called in a dear friend who graciously drove over to stay with our kids.  I drove up to the hospital, but Jeremy stayed behind because he had to preach for church this morning.  As I drove, I begged and pleaded with God to lower Michael’s pressure levels.  Because I so badly want Michael to be whole and healed here.  And when I walked into his room, I was able to breathe a huge sigh of relief learning that the pressures had dropped and his condition was stable again.

Digging through old pictures on my computer, I came across these from an event that we host every year called the 30 Hour Famine.  The 30 Hour Famine is a World Vision event where students don’t eat for 30 hours in order to raise money and awareness for world hunger.  We always run the event on a Friday through Saturday so the kids who participate go throughout the day without eating.  We have them sleep over at our home and on Saturday, we go over the the church to do some work projects.

These pictures are from 2012.  And Michael was little that year (well, relatively).  But, as we mentioned before, he was always game to do whatever.

And that year, “whatever” was joining a crew to wash down the church bus.  So he did, with a completely great attitude, I might add.

And afterwards, he came over to do a little sword fighting with our son.  And these are the kinds of memories that we have of our amazing friend Michael.  He was always willing to do whatever, whether washing a dirty bus or playing swords with our then 7 year old and had a fun time doing it.

We spent most of the day at the hospital with the family.  Jeremy preached at our church this morning and then drove right up to be with everyone.  I give him so much credit, and know it was hard for him.  But I also know that God used him to encourage our church family as we all join together to encourage Michael and the Einfeldts.

My favorite part of the day was spending time with Sally and getting to see Michael.  I gently held his hand and prayed over him knowing that God had allowed him to be there with us and for that, I was so very thankful.  Sally told me multiple times today that she knows that this is in God’s hands.  And that is the truth of this situation.  God has Michael in his mighty hands and He is going to be with him no matter what.

And where does that leave those of us who love Michael and are praying faithfully for him?  I think it leaves us with 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.  I’ve always loved this passage of verses.  One, because it’s short and sweet.  And two, because it tells us exactly what God’s will is for us, in ALL circumstances.  It starts out telling us to be joyful always.  Which to be honest, in this situation, is really, really hard.  Then it says to pray CONTINUALLY and finally to give thanks in ALL CIRCUMSTANCES.  And in doing this, we are doing what God wants us to do and leaving room for him to do a great and mighty work.

I’m so thankful that when we left, Michael’s ICP pressures were down.  But I did just get a text that they are up again.  So right now, we continue to pray that they will go down and stay down.  We know that God can do this and ask that He will.  Thank you for sharing in Michael’s story and for your continued support for him and his family and please remember to keep praying.  Our prayers are being answered.  God is working good into this situation, and He has been faithful in bringing Michael’s levels down various times throughout the week.  For that, we will continue to give thanks.