How God Answered My Prayer
My problems started during the last Christmas when I came down with a cold. The weather was cold and rainy (unusual for California) and we had a lot of company so I got little rest. By New Year’s Day I was really feeling rough so I went to Urgent Care and got some ‘Dry Me Up’ medicine. However, 4 days later I was really sick and my wife and I went to Urgent Care again. This time I got a full work up of x-rays and blood work and confirmation that I had pneumonia!
It was near midnight when we got a call from Emergency Room telling us that the blood test that I had at Urgent Care earlier in the day showed that I was seriously ill and to get me down to the Emergency Room ASAP. It turned out that I had – at the same time, pneumonia, strep throat and the flu and my sodium level had dropped close to the point where my heart could stop at any moment. We got that under control after a 2-night hospital stay and within almost 2 weeks I was well on the way to normal when suddenly – I couldn’t keep any food down. Later I began having trouble breathing. Another Emergency Room visit and another night in the hospital. They sent me home but I still couldn’t keep solid food down. Back down to the Emergency Room the next day and after a CIT Scan, they discovered that I had a blockage between my stomach and the rest of the system.
The next day, Saturday, they put me to sleep and sent a camera down into my stomach and found that something in my body was pressing against the tube between the stomach and the rest of the system. Immediately after I got back to my room there was a flow of doctors with their own ideas of how to proceed. Every one of them talked as though the mass pressing the tube had to be cancer. The top priority was to get a biopsy to decide how to proceed. Except – the mass was behind 5 vital organs and hidden among a lot of blood vessels. Because of its location, none of the usual ways would work. They agreed that Woodland Hills had a doctor and special equipment that were the only ones who could get the biopsy. Due to schedule priorities, I was finally scheduled for Friday, almost a week later. We left Panorama City before 7 AM and they wheeled me into the Gastroenterology Area at 8 AM where I was told that I was not due there until the next Tuesday! The charge nurse told the ambulance driver to keep me there in the hallway until she straightened out what was going on. The ambulance driver called his supervisor who told him to take me back to Panorama City. Off we went! Shortly after we left, my wife and friends arrived at the Gastroenterology Office and asked for me. The nurse looked out in the hall and when she saw that I was missing – she yelled loudly; “We lost him!” Finally, everything was straightened out and I was back in Woodland Hills and getting ready for the procedure. It seems funny now but at the time I was feeling very depressed from being treated, I felt, like a sack of potatoes!
When I woke up from the procedure, I was told that they had not been able to get a sample of the mass! By this time, I was becoming very depressed. A week without any thing to eat or drink! Now they would have to do surgery to get a sample. Then it would be 9 days for the culture to be done to the point where they would know what treatment to start. Another 9 days of no food or drink, stuck in that small room! In the ambulance on the way back to Panorama City, I mentally reached the point where I began praying to God to let me die right then! I was fully committed to just giving up!
Suddenly I found myself in a giant dark cavern, there were many others there that I could only see faintly and I knew that they were all asking god to die! In the far end of the cavern was God – He appeared to me as a brilliant light, very fuzzy. Then I felt a Presence leaning over me and a voice asked; “And you?” I started to pour out my want to die to avoid all the pain I knew was coming. But, suddenly I stopped. I think God must have let the prayers of everyone who had been praying for me into the cavern because I suddenly realized that what I was asking for affected many others. I then suddenly found myself with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was praying to let the torture of the cross pass Him by – but finished by saying; “Not My Will but your Will be done!” I suddenly realized that my prayer to die was selfish and since my goal in life was to become more like Jesus, I had to put myself into God’s Hands as Jesus did! Then I was back in The Presence again. So, I said; “Not my will but Your Will be done. You know best!” Instantly I sensed God, at the far end of the cavern sweeping both hands in my direction and 4 brilliant sheets of energy headed my way, surrounded me and slammed into me! —- In the blink of an eye, I was back in the ambulance. Being me, I said; “Oh hell! — God doesn’t want me!” I then heard a voice in my head; “The work is not done!” I relive that memory every day to remind myself of two things; I put my life in God’s Hands & my life affects others.
Three days later I had surgery to get the sample of the mass so the doctors would know what to do next. When the doctor later came to my room, she started by saying that what she found was a mass of dried blood. She said that the only times they saw similar masses as mine was when people were in an accident and organs were smashed by the force of the accident. But that was impossible in my case because the mass was buried behind five organs and was in among so many blood vessels. Every doctor involved in my case said that they had no idea why my case was so unique. I could have told them God intervened but I doubt any of them would have believed me.
Does God hear our prayers? Does He answer them? I know He does and now you also know He does. Prayers have made a huge difference in my life. Continue to pray and believe that God does watch over us. But His Ways are not always done as we ask.
– Deacon Dick Karl
