He gave me hope...

I have had to switch primary care physicians due to the fact that my PCP doesn't take my current insurance. So today I met with my new doctor (to establish him as my new doctor.) His office is about 3 miles from my house and he comes very highly recommended by many of my friends.

While I was waiting for my appointment, I felt very tired. I was sore all over today. Not the achy flu kind of sore. I felt like you do the day after a car accident. I was even contemplating missing one of my real estate classes tonight. As I was waiting in the exam room I just walked around the room for fear that if I sat on the table, I might just lie down and fall asleep. That's what I wanted to do. I was tired, looked tired and just didn't feel well.

Then the doctor came. He said very little. He was on the computer a lot while we were talking clicking this and that. It had a screen shield on it so I couldn't see what he was doing. He would ask me some questions, I would answer, and then he would say, "hmmm" and then click away on the computer. This went on for a very long time. My appointment was at 1:20 pm and I didn't leave there until 3:30 pm. I never saw a doctor spend so much time entering information into a computer before. The nurse before him also put a lot of my info in the computer. At one point I almost asked him if he was playing a game of solitaire...

At the end of it all he asked me if I had any questions... uh... just one... After all that information I just gave you… what are you thinking? Let's hear your two cents. He spent at least an hour just asking questions (extremely thorough) and I wanted to hear what suggestions he had. He had a great personality and I really liked him.

He is going to have me get some blood work... 18 vials of blood... but he said that he is very confident that my migraines are from a hormone imbalance... (I could have told him that.) But then he went on to say he also thought many of the "weird-I-don't-know-what-this-is type symptoms I have been having are also related to hormones and possible adrenal gland problems.

He told me that he felt pretty confident that he could get me off all my medications and restore my hormone imbalance which has been one of the main barriers in me trying to lose weight. He also thought that once I am off my migraine meds that I will have more energy and feel better.

Something happened in those few minutes... when I left his office I felt so much better. I still ached, still didn't physically feel that great, but I had more energy, was happy, had a bounce in my step, and was ready to take on my classes tonight. I didn't even have a nap today... (big for me due to my meds)

I started to think about the change... He didn't give me any medicine. Other than listening to my heart beat and breathing, he didn't even touch me. Absolutely nothing had changed from the time I had walked into his office to the time I walked out... nothing that is except one thing...

He gave me hope.

Hope that I won't always be this tired. Hope that I can get off these meds (that are expensive and have adverse side effects.) Hope that I can lose weight. Hope that I will feel better, be off meds, AND NOT GET MIGRAINES. Hope that some of the other problems I have been having (extreme excessive thirst for example) can go away. Hope that this isn't all there is (regarding how I have been feeling.)

I drove to class feeling great mentally, (still sore physically) and made it through class just fine.

I started to think more about hope and how important it is.

Can you imagine if you had a really bad day... you wrecked your car, you got fired, you got a bad test result, you said goodbye to a loved one... Can you imagine what that day would be like if you believed that was it? It wasn't going to get any better. I wouldn't want to go on.

But what if you had the same bad day and you knew that this wasn't the end of the story? This was just a really difficult chapter. What if you knew that tomorrow everything would be different? Tomorrow you would get a new car, a new job (or didn't even need a job). What if the test result didn't matter because you were getting a new body? What if tomorrow you knew you would see that loved one again?

Today would be bearable. Difficult, but bearable.

Tomorrow IS going to be a good day. A wonderful day... the most incredible, unimaginable day ever. Tomorrow there won't be any worries, pain, sorrow, or death. Tomorrow there will only be unending joy. IF you REALLY believe this, deep in your heart, you will be able to get through any trial today. You will long for tomorrow. Through your tears you will still be able to have joy because you know that the story hasn't ended yet.

You can look for tomorrow because you have hope.

You can have this hope today, right now. Trust in Jesus. Tomorrow really will be spectacular. Tomorrow isn't in our time frame; it is in the Lord's timing. Although His timing is not our timing, tomorrow IS coming. You can count on it. You can lean on it. You can trust that the Lord is even more faithful than the sun coming up tomorrow.

I remember my pastor sharing years ago about getting on a plane when it was pouring down rain. The clouds were thick and the sun was no where in sight. It was a miserable day. But then he got on the plane and it took off... high above the clouds.... and there, shining in all its glory was the sun. Just because he couldn't see it on the ground didn't mean it wasn't there. It was a bright, sunny day above the clouds. And then the plane started to descend. And again it was raining and cloudy. He could no longer see the sun... but he knew it was there.

It might be raining, even pouring today for you. But the Sun is there. Ask the Lord to lift your eyes above the clouds and give you hope. Even though it might keep raining for a while, knowing that the Sun is there will help you go on. Your circumstances might not change immediately... but knowing that tomorrow IS coming will make all the difference.

Trust in Him. Place your hope in Him.... He is there. He will help.