Seven years ago I was enrolled in a master's program for Spanish teachers. Essentially I would travel to Mexico and/or Spain for three summers and earn a master's degree. For a young gal with no kids and summers off this sounded like an awesome idea.
So I went to Mexico for three weeks to start the program. Long story short, it was a horrible experience -- not entirely the fault of the program, but just the culmination of many bad circumstances. I came home feeling horrible, both emotionally and physically.
The physical part (an unexplained shooting pain in my leg) landed me in the hospital for a few days with a blood clot that stretched from my ankle to my groin. It's no small feat to have walked around Mexico for two-three weeks with a growing blood clot in your leg and to still arrive home safely. At the time I knew it was serious, but the older wiser I get the more I realize just how serious it was.
It wasn't me. It was God. I've always believed my safe passage home was a miracle.
As I was in Mexico that summer our small group was studying Romans and I was reading along with them from far away. Not a coincidence that we were reading Romans and God put several verses in my path.
"...we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." Romans 5:3-5
"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer." Romans 12:12
Coincidentally, the residual "side effects" of having had a huge blood clot {like not being able to find boots that fit because my blood clot leg is forever...uh..thicker...than my good leg} remind me that God's hope does not disappoint.
It's also a reminder to be thankful for God's protection, God's promises, and God's miracles big and small.
It was a terrible experience for me too... Think of how you would have felt if it had been M. or A. The program was bad. No one cared about the students. They cared about the money.
ReplyDeleteL.,
M.