Why do I need Faith? 1

As a child I had always been to Sunday school and church, but the first time I realised what it was all about was when I was 16 and very poorly.

Nobody knew what was wrong with me, only that every few months I got terrible stomach aches and pain. Doctors had dismissed the obvious diagnosis of Appendicitis because my symptoms and the site of the pain didnt seem to fit. I had had so many bouts of this and usually recovered after a few days so my parents would leave me in bed whilst they went to work with friendly, retired, neighbours who could keep an eye on me.

The penultimate bout was very very painful and made me cry out. For the first time I prayed from the heart asking that the pain be taken away. I was alone, I was in pain, I was frightened and I was only 16. Gradually the pain diminished and by that evening I was better. I realised that God had answered my prayer and was a being who offers protection and comfort to those who ask for help. I had now recognised that I was on my own journey to Faith; from merely listening and reading at church I had begun to accept it as truth. From now on I would trust.

The fear was still there though, because I had felt on that occasion that this mystery illness was growing in power and I worried about what might happen next?

It was not long coming and it was so violent that my parents sent for a doctor. I had a high temperature and was almost delirious. The doctor was just about to leave when something inside me made me mention a new symptom that seemed trivial. 'And I have a real ache in my shoulder.'

'Don't worry the doctor about that.' my dad, was panicking.

The doctor rushed back over to the bed and asked me to explain the ache. Within half an hour I was in an ambulance racing to hospital. The exploratory operation was immediate on my arrival. It had been appendicitis after all, the shoulder pain indicating that the appendix had burst and was sending poison all around my body. This meant it had become peritonitis, a fatal condition unless operated on to remove and clear my insides immediately.

When I began to wake up on the ward after the operation I heard 2 nurses talking at the bottom of my bed. 'Another couple of hours and she would have died.'

I knew from then onwards that God had saved my life. Why did I mention my shoulder?, because God gave me the words. The doctors and nursing staff, so skilled and caring had played a very big part, but it was God who had protected me and given me the words to save myself.

Faith means you are not alone, you have someone watching over you who really cares. That's just one of the reasons we need Faith, but it's enough for now. Throughout my life since then I have listened for what God wants me to do. I have been given all these extra years and I must use them wisely.