On trust issues...

... hold on to your wig!

CHRISTIANITY

Maribel Lopez Hill

7/19/20143 min read

woman spreading hair at during sunset
woman spreading hair at during sunset

I'm about to tell you a story.
About God and life and me.
A window into my life's travels & travails.

It was the mid 1980's.
I was 14-15? Freshman year in high school.
I remember when I first noticed/experienced God's deliverance.
And like a flood it came...

In essence, I had experienced a miracle from God. I had spent four years previously in and out of the doctors' offices. At 14, I heard things like the doctor tell me I wasn't going to make it. My body was too tired and organs were too weak. Immune system destroyed. Prolonged white blood cells attacking the organs... lots of needles & testing... 4 years. Day... and night.

Issues resulting from:
Hashimoto's Hypothyroidism (active today)
(Juvenile)Rheumatoid arthritis (active today)

And back then, autoimmune research and disorders were not as well understood as they are today. Some are still enigmas. One Doc basically explained it to me, a child, like this: you are a young girl trapped in an old person's body.

Well... THAT is a death sentence in my book when you are hearing this at 10, a girl who sings, dances, and plays instruments.

It was a very difficult 4 years... and through awkward junior high no less... age 9/10-14?

Nobody really knew outside of my immediate family. Nobody could SEE ME. Nobody could see I was dying on the inside. Literally.

I couldn't ride a bike.
I had to give up dancing, which I love.
Forget sports.
Always sick.
My hands couldn't work the musical instruments well anymore...
Medicines did not work to control my health. I was on a constant medical yoyo.

You now have a glimpse.
Now IMAGINE...

A stripping away
A surrender
A dependence
A learning
A maturation
A demonstration

Then again...

This is a cycle... in my life. You have one too. What's your cycle with God?

Mine took shape early with this deadly physical breaking point, at 14.

So I cried out to God that I wanted to MOVE! Heal me (as I am writing at this moment, I am hearing in my head...'though your body may fail you...' and by the way, my right leg just graduated into a boot over a torn Achilles' tendon).

That was May 1984.


When I went to the Doc again for a check up at the end of that summer of 1984, the Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis was GONE. I could move! I felt great. Hallelujah Jesus!!!

Full Remission = answer to prayer= unexplainable JOY! = Full Throttle

I can call on my God and I know He hears my cries. How He chooses to respond to me is not for me to know. We, mankind, cannot not comprehend such an unimaginable Almighty. We do not have the capacity.

And let's face it... you know... the big white elephant in the room: my experience has been/is that some people can/do freak out when I start to talk about our God... in the Supernatural. BAMM. (Did you just back away from the computer or smart device?) Our thinking isn't broad enough, brothers & sisters.

God is Supernatural. It's a fact that cannot be denied.

He has honored us with the gift of eternal deliverance... through a SUPERNATURAL event --> Jesus. IMAGINE this...

In retrospect, I see my tween years as a time of focus.
A test.
A period of building my trust with/in/through God.
A time when God boldly demonstrated His faithfulness.
A grueling hanging on by my immaculate fingernails (and yes they were... back then too).

Did I really believe IN Him, and did I believe IN what I had experienced BECAUSE of Him? And would I ever tell anyone... and demonstrate faith in Him?

Full Throttle!

Thank You, God, for the 1980's. They, for sure, have been some of the best years of my life... even when death came knocking... the first time.

To God be ALL the Glory forever & ever, Amen!!!
#JesusisKing

~maribel

op07102014
This is how God works...