Spiritual Cosmetic Surgery

I'd love to have cosmetic surgery. A big cut here, a little cut there. And voile - the new and improved Naomi. However, I've watched a couple of shows where surgery happens - and the participants come out looking like they were on the wrong side of Mike Tyson's fist. They're moaning and in great pain...and I change my mind and say - I'm ok with all of this. :)

But there's another type of surgery - surgery at the steady hand of the Great Surgeon. 2007 has been my year of surgery. At the beginning of the year, I was pulled forward to the altar at Sanctuary (http://www.sanctuarycovenant.org/). Pastor Efrem Smith was preaching about how God "cuts" us - and though it's painful, in the end, it's needed. I went forward and said "God cut things out of my life that are dysfunctional. Make me into a godly woman. Teach me how to work through hard things rather than working around them."

I didn't know what I was saying at the time. Since then, God showed me that there is a great need to push through conflict rather than retreating from it. He's shown me that He is taking care of me. I don't have control over things - but I don't need to. He will show me the path He has for me - in my family, with my husband returning from Ghana, as a mother, as a sister, as a colleague at work. But the passage through 2007 was the most painful I have ever seen. Hours of tears, Bible reading, focus on working through conflict...it seemed that I would recover from one thing, and another issue would be headed my way.

I haven't arrived - I'm still a work in progress. But I can slowly see how God is shaping my story - he's cutting me and it's really painful. But in the end, it will be beautiful. It's just getting through the recovery period - and not giving up on it. It's waiting on God and allowing him to remove the bandages slowly. Sometimes the healing isn't done so the bandages are placed lovingly back on.

My healing isn't done - my bandages still exist. But God is working in and through me to create a more beautiful me - on the inside.