What Friends Are For

This is my best friend Karly (left) and I hanging out at the Sundial Bridge in Redding, California two weeks ago. As a friend that I've had since childhood (we estimate about 10 years of awesome togetherness), it was hardly a surprise for her to fly all the way out from Texas to come see me. But still, a portion of me was surprised, because she isn't the type to go far from home.

This is because Karly fought cancer in her childhood and had half of her pelvic bone removed in 2012 to get rid of the tumor (and it worked! Woop woop!). Since then she's walked with a limp (one leg is about 2" shorter than the other) and has become used to severe pain in her damaged nerves, and so she doesn't really have the option to go far from home. Still, she came to see me, and God was talking to me all the while I anticipated her visit. "Don't put it on your shoulders," He constantly reminded me. "I will provide others to do it for you." What, exactly? Read on!

Weeks beforehand, I started feeling like something was going to happen to my dear friend--positively, of course--because she was going to come to Bethel with me and, as the meme says:

She was going to attend school with me for an entire week, and BSSM's atmosphere is all about healing and experiencing encounters with God. I wanted nothing more than for Karly to experience what we "Bethelites" would call a creative miracle. This is when God creates a new part of the body the person is missing, or even replacing dysfunctional parts with new parts. Karly's, of which, would be an entirely new pelvic bone.

So Karly had arrived, and of course we did all sorts of best friend things, like watching every movie ever from Ant-Man to foreign Korean and German movies (we love cultures so much that we fuel each other's fires). But the very next day after her arrival, I took her to church service with me which would be the first Bethel thing she'd experience from her week-long stay. I was nervous. I was afraid that God wouldn't heal her, and that all this time of me telling her about the endless possibility that He could fix her leg with extreme ease, would only discourage the both of us in the end if nothing happened (dumb thinking, I know. It's also human thinking).

We sat in service and near the end the pastor had called for anyone with bone-related issues to stand. Of course I wasn't going to ask Karly to, but she did on her own. Instantly, all the BSSM students around me, strangers and friends, surrounded her and prayed for her healing. God was right when He said He would provide others to do it for me. And then I began to weep. Crying isn't even the right word. Sobbing, weeping, cringing into the abyss of the most tears I've ever produced in my entire life--that's what I mean. I had no idea what was going on inside of me, except that God was doing something insane in my heart. The funny part was that Karly didn't cry at all, being the strong-willed person she is, and instead was the one comforting me. Hilarious, if you ask me.

I remained sobbing like this for at least half an hour (thank goodness I brought tissues), and students began pouring into me, praying for me unbeknownst to them that I was crying on behalf of someone else. Then a staff member came to me and prophesied over me, "You're feeling the compassion of Jesus for your friend. He wants this just as bad as you do. He's on your side."

Those are words I'll never forget, because he was very right and it made so much sense. So I mustered up my courage and did something I've never EVER done before with the intention of seeing it truly happen.

I walked over to Karly (she had been guided away by another staff and was still being prayed for because now everyone was seeing that she needed a creative  miracle), and I put my hands on her leg and asked God to heal it. I prayed about three times, though I can hardly remember because I was still sobbing, and nothing came to pass. I straightened up and smiled at her and she returned a smile to me, as we both silently agreed that this was an awesome experience for the both of us and this wasn't a failure.

Through the rest of the week, she had been prayed over several more times as nothing appeared to have happened, but she was not offended or discouraged in the least (this chick is seriously unoffendable. It's insane). She encountered God on a personal level that didn't have to do with her cancer-stricken leg at all, and that was enough for her to be moved and changed. Awesome.

So the story appeared to have ended when I dropped her off at the airport after a week of intense bonding. I knew God did something in her, and she was more than happy about the outcome of her stay. She was already planning her next trip out, if that says something!

But just the other day, she had texted me out of the blue. 

"I just realized I haven't taken any pain medication in at least two weeks. I'm actually officially off my pain medication."

I sat there and stared at the words in complete silence.

"No serious pain anymore?" I asked, trying not to jump the gun. And by gun, I mean several rocket launchers pointed at my life-pumping organ called a heart.

"I mean. Today on the flight home I got achy. But the seats on the plane sucked and that was more like normal arthritis/achy bone kind of stuff." Bravo for being real with the answer, Karly! But there was a whole lot more to this text, which continued: "Other than that, no pain. The biggest thing I've noticed is that the nerve pain is gone. There was a pill...that I had to take every 24 hours. It helped with the nerve pain, which that pain sucks so bad because it'll randomly feel like you're getting stabbed with a needle. But, while I was visiting you, it had run out...It was just now that I realized I haven't had that nerve pain at all. So, I'm gunna fill the medication just in case but I'm not even gunna bother taking it. That and my other pain meds...were the only subscription pain meds I was on. Now, I guess I'm not. Wow."

I proceeded in saying:

"Do you know what this means."


Then she said:


And then I said, "Dude. Duuuuuude. Dude. I'm gunna say it. I'M GUNNA SAY IT. Jesus...Jesus healed that..."

And then she said:


The end.

Just kidding. On a more professional note, I see that God totally did something and is more than likely continuing to do something in her body because He really is on my/our side. He wants people to be healed. He doesn't cause sickness and He doesn't cause tragedies, but He sure does turn them into the most beautiful testimonies time and time again.

So be encouraged, my dear readers. God does the miraculous but in ways you can't even see. Be bold and have faith to pray for other people's healing, because faith is spelled R-I-S-K, and without it, nothing can happen.

Taking risk is definitely key to a fine life--full of sincerity, grace and miracles.