Why I lift My Hands in Praise….

Twenty-two years ago today, at exactly 1:15p—something happened to me that I will never forget!

As I sat in a circle in my Third grade class, it was the time of day that we all looked forward too!  It was time for all the jelly beans to be poured out of the glass jar, onto the plate, to be counted.  We had a guessing jar, and whoever guessed closest to the number, or the exact number would be the recipient of the much coveted candy.

As we sat there with glowing faces, waiting to hear our fate, one of the other students accidentally broke the glass jar.  Being the “little Miss Helpful” that I am, I told my favorite teacher, Mrs. M. that I would clean up the mess.

While cleaning up the mess, I noticed the beautiful cork top of the jar, and decided that I wanted to keep it.  After throwing the other pieces of glass out, I took the one piece of glass that contained the cork top, turned it up-side-down (with the jagged edges of glass upward), and I took a thick marker, and started to jab the cork out. 

WARNING…I am going to be a little graphic here, so if you don’t want to read what happened—stop here.

As I jabbed the cork, my hand slipped, & my right wrist came down on the jagged edges of the glass.  The broken glass pierced my wrist deeply.  I remember saying, “Mrs. M, I’m bleeding!”   She looked over in astonishment, she knew that the artery had been cut.  She quickly rushed me down to the office, & ”911″ was called.

Long story short…

The surgery lasted over 8 hours—I had severed the radial artery, ligaments, tendons, & veins as far down as my third digit.  At first, the doctors were not sure if they could save my hand, it was such a delicate procedure, I was so young, and they had never seen, or done an operation as such. (In fact, this surgery was so rare, that it is featured in a Medical Journal.)  They just weren’t sure whether I would ever have full usage of my hand again.

But today I praise God, on this 4th day of May, that I type this BLOG to you, with both of my hands!

I praise God for my favorite teacher, Mrs. M—who I still keep in very good contact with, for her initiative to pick me up, and run me down to the office that day, I praise God for Dr. Zucker & the Hospital for Sick Children Team for allowing God to work through them, as they repaired my wrist, I praise God for the Nurse, who was patient with me as I screamed as she removed all 52 stitches, I praise God for the prayers of my family, & church family, & I praise the Great God, that I have 95% usage of my right hand!

“So Chanda, why do you lift your hands in praise,” you may ask?  

Well, every time I look down at my wrist and see that huge scar, it is a reminder to me of the scars in the hands of Jesus, the ONLY One who was willing to die for me, (& you) so that I could have a second chance at life—and this is why I lift my hands in praise!

“I KNOW WHAT I AM DOING!”

A few weeks ago, I went out & bought a desk for my home office!  I had seen it in the store for weeks, it was the exact color that I wanted, it would work perfectly with the theme I was going for in that particular room, the price was right, & the best part about it was that it was not assembled therefore, it would give me something fun to do!

Early Sunday morning, I got up, & decided to put this desk together.  I pumped up the music, laid all the pieces out on the floor, broke open the packet of hardware, grabbed my hammer & screw driver, & of course, the trusty instructions!

Page One, the instructions read—“lay out all the materials you will be needing for the project”, I looked at the booklet  and thought, “Duh, I’ve done that already!”  Page Two, the instructions read—“Count & ensure that all the pieces of hardware are enclosed in this packet”.  “Yeah right!  Who is really going to count all those billions of pieces!?” I said to myself.

As I continued skimming past all the pages of the preliminary things, (& all that non-sense), I began to think to myself, “Come on now Chanda, how hard could it actually be to put this thing together?  I have all the pieces, & I have the picture, clearly, I know what I am doing!”

The first hour went by, & I thought to myself, “hey, I am doing pretty well, everything is under control.” Around the 2 hour mark, I started to get a little frustrated, some of the pieces didn’t seem to be fitting as planned, but I dare not pick up the instruction manual after all, I know what I am doing!

As I hit the 3 hour mark on this project, (& I know what you are thinking right now)but YES!  I was finally done! Mission accomplished! Task completed!  After all, I knew what I was doing!

I held up the picture next to the desk, it looked exactly like the picture did…well just kinda.  What I still can’t get my head wrapped around was the fact that I had about 20 or so extra nuts, bolts & screws, & about 5 pieces of the wood left over. (I guess that explains all the missing drawers I should have). But then I thought to myself—who cares, it looks good enough, I knew, I knew what I was doing!

How many times have you been in a similar situation?  A situation where you had been given basic instructions on what to do, yet figured that you knew what was best after all, YOU KNEW WHAT YOU WERE DOING! Right?

God’s Word has said to us, (I’m quoting from the Message by: Eugene Peterson, because he hits the nail on the head on this one), Jeremiah 29:11—God declares, “I know what I’m doing!  I have it all planned out, plans to take care of you, & never to leave you, plans to give you the future you hope for.”

God has given us a set of basic instructions to follow if we desire to be successful in life—The Bible!   How much longer will we continue to set the Instructions aside, & allow things in our life to be, “just kinda” like when the real deal should look like?  How much longer will we continue to rob ourselves of the full benefits that have been offered?

It’s time for us to stop this, “I know what I am doing” attitude.  Now is the time for us to pick up the Instruction Book & focus on the “I AM” who HAS done, IS doing, and IS GOING to do awesome things in our lives!  After all, He Knows exactly what He’s doing!