Divinely Engineered Setbacks

God's Plan is FRIGHTFULLY WONDERFUL. Sometimes, He witholds specifics from the future to protect us, I think. If we could see everything, it'd be too scary, & we'd think, "There's no way I could go through that!"

I've gotten REAL SICK before. My 3rd year in college, the doctor told me to go home, that I couldn't finish the year in school. I was diagnosed with borderline low normal hypothyroidism then & told to get it checked at the hospital back home. I ended up staying out of school three semesters & staying on Okinawa for a year before my condition was adequately treated. I found out later that the year-long procedure of trying medication, drawing blood, mailing a sampling to a hospital in mainland Japan for testing, waiting for the results, trying another dose for another month, drawing & mailing blood to mainland Japan, etc, ALL COULD'VE BEEN DONE IN ABOUT 45 MINS AT ANOTHER U.S. HOSPITAL!

When I got better and on an even keel, I went back to school and resumed studies. After several weeks in summer school, I was notified that my mother had been　diagnosed with cancer & flown to Hawaii for surgery. She passed away that summer. I could see then that God's Plan had been: He knew that my mother & I needed to be with each other during her last earthly year; He'd touched my body with illness then picked me up & taken me clear across the Pacific to a tiny island...and made sure I stayed there for a year. I learned then a truth I don't think I'll forget all my life--it's so clear in the Bible, too--"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and LEAN NOT IN YOUR OWN UNDERSTANDING." (Prov. 3:5)

If God had shown me ahead of time what He planned to do, I think I would've been too afraid to "trust and obey", so He protected me.

I need to mention the change in physical activity after I got back to studies. I've refrained from participation in sports since then, & although I used to do work in the cafeteria to help pay my way through school, that exertion was too much so I couldn't work the remainder of my college years either but had to piggy back on my sisters' work. A friend who knew me before & after my throid problem once commented, "And June, look at you now."

Again, after that incident, I had another "talk" with God, in which I told Him He could do whatever He wanted if He'd leave me with a heart to love Him.