Yet I Shall Praise Him

Guest post by author Lauri Lemke Thompson

Photo of the author snapped by her husband the day after her perhaps ill-advised double surgery.

“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good as long as you live so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”  Psalm 103:2-5 (RSV).

“Why don’t you have the two surgeries on the same morning?” my foot doctor suggested. He wanted to remove Morton’s neuromas, and his associate, a hand specialist, wanted to perform a joint repair at the point where my thumb meets my palm to resolve severe arthritis pain.

“Why not?” I asked myself, so I agreed. I’d only have to be put under once. I might even save some money: a two-for-one, so to speak.

What did I know? Post-surgery, as I sat with my right arm encased in huge yellow foam reminiscent of Sponge Bob Square-pants, staring at my heavily bandaged left foot, I wondered, “What was I thinking?”

For weeks to come, I’d be enlisting my husband’s help frequently, since I couldn’t even pull the recliner lever to get out of my chair. My arm had to stay in a hard brace for six weeks, and the puffy discolored foot took much longer to heal than I had expected.

As the weeks dragged by, hand therapy was painful, but I could see light at the end of that tunnel. Ultimately, the hand surgery proved successful. My foot, however, was a different story. Not only was it slow to heal, my gut told me at a certain point that the procedure had not solved my problem. The reality stung: long after I was no longer stuck in that recliner I’d be stuck with chronic pain – pain that would limit many activities that I loved to do. I began asking “Why, God?” but that morphed into “I’m angry with You, God.”

He led me to Psalm 103. Here was David saying “Forget not all His benefits.” Benefits? I knew a lot about those from time spent as an employee benefits manager when I often reminded employees about the value of their “package”. But here Jesus was outlining a benefits package available to anyone who receives Him. As I read, I realized this package was priceless, and it was mine, all mine.

Reading it, I felt that Jesus piles one benefit on top of another. As if forgiveness, healing and redemption weren’t enough, He tops it off with love and mercy. Then He adds satisfaction and renewed strength.

“God, I’m so sorry,” I prayed. “The first thing on that list I need is Your forgiveness for being so mad at You. Look at all the good things You provide. I will follow You despite my deep disappointment with this foot surgery.” Ever since that day, when troubles come, I try to declare without equivocation: “Yet shall I praise Him.”

A Wisconsin native, Lauri Lemke Thompson appreciates living in the lovely Ozark mountains in Branson, Missouri. She is active in Christian Women’s Connection (Stonecroft) and the Ozarks Chapter of the American Christian Writers. Her two books, Hitting Pause and Pressing Forward, are collections of her columns, articles, and devotions. Her bimonthly column appears in the Branson Globe newspaper.