Answered Prayers

Throughout the world today, one doesn't have to look very far to find someone requesting prayers for one thing or another. Whether it's illness, financial trouble, loss of a loved one or just something as simple as guidance in a transitional phase, we all seem to have something we want those around us to pray for on our behalf. I'm certainly no exception. In fact, I could probably be pretty accurately described as a poster child for the power of prayer and the fact that miracles happen.

The thing is, though, many people have a tendency to not only pray for whatever thing they're in need of at a given moment, but do so with a particular fix in mind. That fix is often the only thing that's seen as a real answer to our prayers and it's something we've all been guilty of, at one time or another. That's not always how it works, though. Sometimes, prayers can be answered in the most unexpected ways.

My own life features a prime example of that concept, as well. In late 2915 and early 2016, I found myself in what can really only be described as a bit of a rut in my life. I was having what seemed like endless issues in my personal life outside of home, my work life and my family life. Eventually, I found myself at my wits' end and in dire need of what I was calling at the time "a fresh start."

At the beginning of February 2016, I finally found the opportunity I had been looking for to get that new start when I was offered a job. It was a position I'd sent off a copy of my resume in a blind attempt to find some kind of work months before and had completely forgotten about. It was in an entirely different state, roughly 700 miles away from where I was living at the time and I had only sent my resume to that organization on a whim since one of the best friends I've ever had lived nearby.

Once I got the first contact from them, however, I knew my friend couldn't possibly be the only good thing about that job. Not only was I offered the position on the spot, without even a phone interview, let alone an in-person one, I was able to get everything I needed in almost no time and immediately found a place to live without any effort. Next thing I knew, I was the new sports editor at the Gatesville (Texas) Messenger, beginning my new life.

Many people around me thought I was nuts for taking the job under those circumstances and I wasn't sure they were wrong, but I knew I was where I was supposed to be and a whole lot more than coincidence was involved in the process. It wasn't until months later that I ultimately realized just why I was really there, though. Over the course of the five months I worked at that newspaper, I had several experiences that I thought gave me to the answer to the question of why I was so obviously supposed to be there, but I never would have even considered what ultimately turned out to be the real answer.

While I was there, I made several new friends and it was clear that I had enriched their lives just as much as they enriched mine and I was happier than I'd been in recent memory. In June of that year, however, that all came crashing down.

One day, I went into work and found myself having dizzy spells, memory loss and a few other neurological issues I was all too familiar with. I knew instantly that I was having a shunt malfunction. After quite a bit of trouble convincing a new team of doctors that I knew what was going on and two weeks in the hospital, I had my fix and thought I was ready to start getting back to my life. I was in for quite a surprise.

At one of the follow-up appointments after the two surgeries I ended up having, I was asked by my primary care doctor what the hospital had told me about the mass on my kidney. The answer to that question was nothing, so I was obviously taken aback. Needless to say, that got the ball rolling on still more tests and a couple of weeks later, I was informed that I had cancer.

It wasn't just any old kidney cancer, though. As it turned out, I had the most aggressive form of renal cell carcinoma in existence. Despite not knowing the severity of the situation at the time, I knew what cancer was and what the potential results could be. I wasn't about to let that happen, but at the same time, I wasn't going to engage in that battle 700 miles away from everything I'd known for my whole life, so back I came.

When I made my return to Missouri, I was informed by two different doctors that if that tumor hadn't been discovered and I hadn't sought treatment at that time, I wouldn't have lived to see my 30th birthday. Seeing as how I was already 28, less than half a year from turning 29, that was a hard statement to hear.

It all turned out fine, though, as it was successfully treated without me even having to lose a kidney. As of the publication of this blog post, I am now approaching five years cancer-free. If I hadn't listened when I got the answer to my prayer because it didn't make a whole lot of sense I still would have had the shunt revision that ultimately led to the discovery of the cancer, but it would have been treated by a doctor who had operated on me before and knew me well, so he never would have done the ultrasound that made the discovery.

Had that been the way things transpired, I wouldn't have known I had cancer until it was too late and wouldn't be alive to tell the story. The moral of the story, since I am alive to tell it, is never take for granted that a prayer is going to be answered the way you think it will or the way you want it to be answered. God knows better than you do.