There were know symptoms. There was no indication. And yet here I am.
The stakes are kind of high. If I do the surgery I risk losing my already at risk cornea (transplant 18 years ago) and a complete loss of sight. If I do nothing I definitely go blind in the eye. Its easy to start second guessing everything and trying to blame the doctor for missing something or maybe I missed something and should have gotten to the doctor sooner. But the truth is nothing was missed, it just is what it is and God is sovereign.
So we live 13 hours away from Medellín. Where we live there is basic medical care but if you need a specialist you go to Barranquilla or Medellín where I am now. We used to live Medellín. We didn’t want to but God is sovereign. We wanted to move straight to Santa Marta, you know the place with no retina specialists. We had friends we met 7 years prior in a different city once. They now live in Medellín. We became really good friends while living here in Medellín. I’m actually staying at their house now because I came to Medellín for a conference not for eye surgery but God is sovereign. We have teammates on our missions team who are helping me get around to appointments. They initially were looking to live and minister in Bogotá but changed and came to Medellín because sovereign = God.
Instead of bypassing Medellín and going straight to the coast we lived in Medellín at the beginning of this year. This isn’t even my first time having retina problems in this city. The doctor I saw today was the same one I saw in January and the same one who lasered (I reserve the right to make up words) a part of this retina to prevent a detachment. As it turns out the only part not detached is the part he lasered in January. But you know God is sovereign.
God was sovereign when I woke up this morning and then I had to have surgery. It turns out He wasn’t just sovereign this morning but He’s always been sovereign. It didn’t matter if I didn’t want to go to Medellín He just continued in His sovereignty set me up so that when I woke up this morning and found out I needed to have surgery He had provided me a specialist in a city I knew with friends around me to help me while my wife and kids are 13 hours away in the place God has called to minister in, the place without specialists. And its not about me. It’s about God and His sovereignty and He has seen fit to arrange all of this so I can get the medical care I need when I need it.
I forgot to mention my 3rd call, after my wife and then my mom, when I found out this morning was to a guy I met in college from Canada in 2004 who went on to become an eye doctor (not the technical term I know) so he could pray for me and explain the techniques and procedures to me in English. But you God is sovereign is like that.