Growing in Grateful Dependence

You’d think I’d learn by now. I mean, how many times do I have to experience the same lesson before I get it?

This Thanksgiving season is a reminder for me to be grateful. And that gratitude is also related to a season of dependence. In the span of eleven months from last year to this year, I experienced six surgeries under general anesthesia. Joint replacements, nerve damage abatement, and thyroid cancer. Yeesh!

Now that I’m on the other side of these procedures, I can thankfully say that each medical procedure was successful. More important than the various diagnoses and prognoses, however, were the lessons I learned, again and again. Every procedure offered another chance to develop and grow in the practice of trusting God, regardless of the outcome.

During this period when surgeries averaged one every other month, I became an expert at a familiar dance: the dance between faith and fear. Each surgery provided the opportunity for another lesson in dependence. Another lesson in faith. And another lesson in trusting the One who is always at work for my ultimate good and His eternal glory.

In the testing and trusting, recoveries and resting, and grateful dependence, God brought many helpers. Remember the story told by Fred Rogers, of the children’s program, Mister Roger’s Neighborhood, whenever he saw scary things on the news?

“My mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, especially in times of disaster, I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers—so many caring people in this world.”

While my personal experiences did not rise to the level of national disasters, the helpers still arrived. Meals, transportation, picking up the mail, taking out the trash, encouragement in the form of cards and calls, and even household repairs. People who became the tangible representation of God’s care.

There may come a day when a health outcome will not be what I want to hear. Or bad news may arrive in a different form. My prayer is that my faith and trust will never depend on a favorable diagnosis or outcome. Instead, I will depend on the One to whom I belong, knowing He will send what and who I will need in His perfect timing.

And for that, I’m thankful to be growing in grateful dependence.

What have you experienced lately that God has used to deepen your dependence on Him?

How has He sent you “helpers” to remind you that you are not alone?