Statistically Speaking …

It started with the worst headache of her life followed by an ambulance ride, a grueling five-and-a-half hour surgery and three weeks in I.C.U. Diagnosed with a brain aneurysm, my friend, Karen, found herself at the center of a medical crisis she’d never imagined.

For the first ten days following the initial brain bleed, Karen’s life balanced precariously on a dangerous precipice as they watched her for signs of vasospasms (brain spasms) which frequently occur with this type of abnormality. If one of these spasms were to occur, statistics show that the majority of patients do not survive. In fact, a large majority of people do not survive the initial brain bleed. Statistically speaking – things didn’t look good for my friend.

Karen and her husband, Larry, are Small Group leaders at the Vineyard; they are my small group leaders. They called on their small group family to pray without ceasing for Karen’s health issues and we did just that for the entire duration. We have a large small group and many of us reached out to friends and family in our church and around the country asking for united prayer on Karen’s behalf.

Miraculously – Karen survived; the tiny bald spot on the top of her skull the last reminder of her ordeal. Just prior to her discharge, the nurses confessed that many of the patients admitted to their I.C.U. wing rarely got to go home. Karen’s surgeon told her that she was a “one-percenter,” in the fact that not only did she survive, but she was in the one percent of people who managed to survive virtually unscathed with no signs of a neuro deficit at all. Karen is a one-percent miracle!

We read in the Bible that Jesus performed many healing miracles in His day, yet somehow we tend to feel as though miracles were for that time and not something that regularly occurs in this day and age. And if some sort of miracle should happen, those miracles are for other people and not for us.

To witness a miracle in the flesh, especially a miracle of this magnitude, has been such a faith booster for many of us as it reminds us that we serve a God who laughs in the face of medical statistics. Our Savior is bigger than a measly one percent survival statistic rate. When God has a plan and purpose for someone’s life even something as detrimental as a brain aneurysm won’t get in His way.

Obviously not every medical crisis has such a miraculous ending. But if we serve the Lord Jesus Christ, even if the outcome isn’t a medical miracle but a sudden death – even then – we have the assurance that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Statistically speaking – God is not limited by statistics. Our God is Lord of the one-percent, 100% of the time.

“If you make the Lord your refuge, if you make the Most High your shelter, no evil will conquer you; no plague will come near your home. For he will order his angels to protect you wherever you go.” Psalm 91:9-11 (NLT)

Blessings in Christ,
Kathy K.