Subtitle: Jesus is the path to joy regardless of the circumstances.

Excerpt: Hester, facing her twentieth sinus surgery, finds joy and comfort in her faith despite her husband’s frustration. A transformative encounter with Jesus, facilitated by her friend Julia, led Hester to believe in God’s presence and love, helping her cope with her illness.

Author: Derek Hastings

Hester sat in the passenger seat of her one-year-old RAV4, looking out the window at the streetlights beginning to dim as the sky began to brighten. Greg, her husband, was driving and yawning. He was a night owl and not used to getting up for lunchtime.

Part of Greg grumbled inside about how many times this was going to continue. Hester’s bright smile and joyful attitude also irritated Greg. How could Hester be so calm about these surgeries? Couldn’t she see that God was punishing her for something? Wasn’t the fact that he and his prayer group had been praying for Hester’s healing for years with no answer proof that He wasn’t listening?

As Greg pulled up to the hospital, he let out a frustrated sigh.

Hester ignored it and reminded Greg he needed to be prepared when the hospital called for him to bring her home

Greg forced a smile on his face and said, “I know the drill, Hester. I’m beginning to make friends with the receptionist; we’ve been here so many times.”

Hester giggled and agreed, “I know what you mean. I know many of the nurses who prepare me for the operations. Some of them look forward to my visits.”

Greg’s smile became more genuine as Hester’s joyfulness and obvious love for him overcame his crankiness. “I’ll be here, sweetheart. So what is this anyway? Isn’t this like the four hundredth time you’ve had this operation?”

“No, sleepy, but I’m pretty sure this is number twenty.”

Greg could only shake his head and say, “Well, anyway, that’s gotta be a world record.”

Hester smiled and said, “See you later, alligator!”

Hester quickly started making friends with the young nursing student who was processing the new arrivals. He was extremely nice, if a bit distracted by her friendliness. And, when Hester was on the gurney and covered with the nice warm blankets, he came back and said, “I couldn’t help it. I noticed you have been here a lot. So I counted the number of sinus operations you have had. This one will be number twenty.”

Hester looked at the young man and laughed, “I was right!”

A few minutes later, her pre-op nurse came in, and the same questions about which medications she was on and the seemingly endless reminders of her date of birth began. But this nurse was used to seeing her again, and some of the medications and details triggered lots of conversation and laughs. This was Hester’s routine.

Later, the anesthesiologist visited, came into Hester’s cubicle, happy and upbeat, and asked, “So do you think you are racking up a lot of frequent flier miles?”

Hester laughed and complained, “Hey, you stole my line. I was going to use that one when we got to the operating room.”

While the surgery nurses wheeled her to the operating room, Hester remembered the many conversations she had with Greg and their friends at church. Almost everyone wondered how she could stay happy with all the physical problems cropping up at once. It was the same thing most of the time: the persistent belief that God was at least ignoring her health. At the worst, was God doing this to her?

Hester had found Jesus at a time of catastrophic pain in her life. She had recently divorced from her high school sweetheart. She had gone on an almost suicidal downward spiral. She began to drink heavily from early in the morning until she collapsed in her room at her mother’s house. The pain of being abandoned by her husband, who just drove away one day without saying a word, produced a brutal self-incrimination of “Why… What did I do wrong?”

Months went by, and Hester became a recluse, hiding at home, not talking to anyone. Then, her best friend from the traveling softball team, Julia, rang her doorbell.

Hester started crying as she recognized Julia. She was wearing some kind of military uniform and looked amazing. When they sat down in the living room, Hester’s mother brought two cups of coffee. And, she got her traditional hug from Julia. Julia moved from the recliner she had been led to by Hester’s mother to sit next to Hester on the couch. She didn’t say anything; they just held each other and cried… a lot.

Julia had enlisted in the Coast Guard and was waiting to travel to the Officer Candidate School when she heard about Hester’s situation.

Hester was stunned by the image of strength Julia projected and began a torrent of questions about Julia’s changes. Eventually, Hester began asking how she could follow in Julia’s footsteps and join the Coast Guard. But Julia quickly realized Hester thought Julia’s transformation was because of her joining the military. So, at one of their daily visits to their adopted local coffee roaster, Julia explained where the transformation came from. She had come back to her relationship with Jesus.

Hester was amazed. But she balked at the idea that Jesus could be her friend. So this became a “to be continued” talk. Life was beginning to change with Julia there to support her. She stopped drinking and tried to start running the cross-country course with Julia’s daily workouts.

Two weeks passed, and Julia was preparing to leave for OCS in New London, Connecticut. Hester tried to hide the pain of Julia leaving, but became progressively depressed as the time approached. The morning run became too much for her, and she let Julia go ahead. There were benches along the course. Hester sat down and began crying instantly. Intellectually, she knew Julia couldn’t stay, but Julia’s insistence that she just ask Jesus to help seemed ridiculous. Her desperation for an answer exploded, and she cried out to Jesus for help, and to show her He was there.

Three hours later, Julia found Hester near one of the benches on the course. She was giggling and softly crying at the same time. Hester had an encounter that she couldn’t describe to Julia. All she could say was, “Jesus kicked my butt!” and then she would break out laughing again.

Hester looked at Julia and broke out laughing softly, and as she helped Hester to her feet, she said, “I’m alive. I asked Jesus if He was there, and boom, I dropped like a rock onto the bench, and I could feel Him all around me. I felt the pain drain out of me, replaced with a peace so strong. All I could do was laugh or cry. I don’t think I could have even stood up. But I didn’t care. I kept hearing His voice telling me He had me, don’t worry, I am here, you are mine now. Just let me love you. You have a new life now. And, I could hear singing coming from a long way away. Everything looks different!”

Hester remembered that moment all the way to the operating room. She knew her friends didn’t understand how much she trusted Jesus. Her entire life He was there. He proved His reality in every way but showing her His face. Hester knew Him so well that the idea of her sicknesses being from Him was illogical and impossible.

Still, though, the situation was pretty annoying.

Then the anesthesiologist said, “This is going to burn a little bit in the IV.”

Consciousness returned in the recovery room. Hester was the only patient in the room, and it was almost bedtime at home.

But there was music in her mind. The song was one of her favorites from Citizens, titled “Holy Divine.” It had been there the moment she woke up. Then, as she began to focus on the nurse waking her up, the song was replaced by a powerful sense of worship. A strong voice sang of Jesus’s attributes with a passion over the choir’s backup she had come to know. The power of the song sparked a sense of worship in Hester’s heart, and the choir wrapped her in His Presence.

Days passed as Hester recovered from the surgery. This time, she brought that question to Jesus. “If you don’t make people sick, how does this work?”

Jesus brought to mind a particular understanding she thought was the ticking time bomb for the End Times. Sin. There are lots of clues about the physical effect of sin over time in this created universe. The slow-decaying life spans of the patriarchs. And how our environment seems to continue to decay over time, no matter how hard science tries to stop it.

Quantum mechanics also seems to hint at the malleability of time. Then Matthew 24:22 gives us a clue about the unstoppable physical effects upon the universe. Population increases, and sin quickly accumulates.

Matthew 24:22, “And if those days had not been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.”

Plus, Romans 8:18-22: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the eagerly awaiting creation waits for the revealing of the sons and daughters of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.”

Hester sat and thought about the idea of sin accumulating. There are many verses that point to the sickness of sin. As for her physical ailments, sin has physical consequences. Some that linger from earlier generations. And, part of her told her everyone gets sick. Some are worse than others. Nothing caused it. It’s just what life is about. Believe it or not, everyone faces the same potential problems.

Hester chuckled and said, “I trust you, Lord! Your presence and your comforting joy sustain me no matter the circumstances!”