Excavation

Last Wednesday, Kelly and I went to Excavation at church. We heard some good worship music, watched a video that has previously stirred a little emotion in me (and most others) and listened to Don talk about addictions.

After he was basically finished with his talk, Don gave an "alter call" for all those who wanted to be freed from an addiction. I knew I was going to go up before we even got to church. Much to my surprise, Kelly got up and went to the front. I call this a surprise because my wife is the most self control ed, self disciplined individual I have ever met. She is the one who will decide the night before that she wants to get up at 5:00am to exercise and proceeds to do so. When she and the kids go out of town, if her plan is to be out of the house at 7:15, the tires will be off the driveway (and probably out of the neighborhood) by 7:15. Some of the foods she really enjoys actually can cause problems with her breathing if she has too much (with some, any amount is a problem), so she is very good at avoiding them. And so on. Yet she felt the need to go up front for healing. Blew my mind.

As for myself, the thing I went with the intent of working on did not quite go the way I had hoped. I must admit that this is mostly my fault. After some healing prayer within the large group that first went up front, Don released back to their seats all who felt completely cured of their addiction. I guess a little shyness crept in because I wasn't about to continue standing up there feeling like a failure or letting the congregation know that I needed more work. I know, one of my top 25 brilliant moves.

However, after the "formal" proceedings were completed, I was blessed. As I went to put on my coat, the pain in my shoulder that always rears it's ugly head when I stick my arm in a sleeve showed up again. I said to Kelly, somewhat jokingly, that I should probably go have someone pray over my shoulder. She looked at me, looked around and pointed out two prayer team members that weren't busy. So I went up to them, explained the situation, then felt foolish (or at least unconfortable) as they prayed over my shoulder. But, as they were praying, the shoulder started to feel a little different. When they were done, I was asked if there was any change. When I put my coat back on, it didn't hurt as it had before. Sure there was some disconfort, but the actual pain was gone. When we got home that night, I stood in the kitchen and took off then put back on my coat about 25 times. As silly as this sounds, I had fun with that coat for a while.
Today, 5 days later, I can still tell that something isn't quite right, but at least I don't have to close my eyes every time I stick my arm into a sleeve.

Thanks God!