Out of the Frying Pan: My Joy Fight Heats Up

Red Hot Achilles

First, thank you to every one of you who has cared for me these past few months. You have been God’s hand. In other words, you are the toast.

Second, many of you have asked for updates on my Achilles injury. This is that.

Third, “Out of the Frying-Pan into the Fire” is the sixth chapter of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Bilbo and the dwarves escape the goblins, only to find themselves treed by wolves.

Little did I know on that March day on sunny Sanibel that my little pickleball lunge would land me in the fire. I had no clue how grueling the first two months of Achilles rupture recovery would be, or that a little step down from the church stage the first Sunday in June would re-rupture the tender tendon, or that the scab in the middle of the incision would turn into an open wound, or that the tenderness and swelling earlier this week was the sign of an infection that is probably tendon suture deep and will likely result in a third, even more serious tendon reconstruction surgery.

I had no idea.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire.

My life is hidden with Christ in God. It’s safe. By the way, Christian, that goes for you too.

Even if the worst case becomes the present case and then gets worse.

Even into the fire.

Through the Prayers of Many

God knows. This infection was known to God before I was even born. And also, God uses the prayers of his people to bring his good will to pass. I see that in Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 1,

⁹ Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. ¹⁰ He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. ¹¹ You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.

So I ask for your prayers. As the Spirit leads you, of course, but if you need ideas:

1. Pray that God will mercifully use this course of stronger antibiotics to kill the destructive bacteria (in? and) around my twice ruptured tendon.
2. Pray that my tendons will not rupture. I say tendons, plural, because the new antibiotic I’m on is linked to tendon ruptures.
3. Pray that the Spirit would buoy my spirit with his presence and joy, come what may. For “sour godliness is the devil’s religion.”
4. Pray for the Holy Spirit to guide my medical team.
5. Pray that Christ will be exalted in me.

It’s serious. I’m not in denial. My situation is sobering. I’ve shed some tears.

But there’s really only two choices, as Elisabeth Elliot observed, You either trust God, or you don’t trust God.

You either trust God,
or you don’t trust God.

Elisabeth Elliot

Or as David wrote, “When I am afraid, I will trust in you.”

My Joy Fight Heats Up

I fight off fear and I fight for joy every waking hour, and quite a few this last week that I’d have preferred to sleep through.

I duke it out for joy anytime and everywhere, but these days it happens with brute force and consistency with Bible open, gathering goodness in my green moleskine in our sunny side yard (pictured above).

So picture me that way, while you pray, stalking joy, in what Pastor Kevin DeYoung called, “an act of God -centered defiance. ‘Yet I will rejoice.’ This is the revolution, this is the rebellion worth having. A rebellion of joy.”

I was out rebelling on my speckled quilt in the yard this week, yet still surprised by joy in Isaiah 28.

Ours Is A Wise Farmer

The passage reads a pithy passage from Proverbs:

We see here how God, the master Farmer, brings his harvest home. In a word, wisely.

He knows how to bring out the best, the most fruitful harvest, from each different crop. Even if his treatment seems harsh, the metaphor makes sense.

“What God chooses for us – and for our family, and friends, for Christians across the world – is a major source of bewilderment! …The farmer, says Isaiah, knows how to prepare the ground (v. 24), where exactly to plant each type of seed (v. 25). He knows also how to harvest each crop so as to conserve its precious fruit. If we could give a voice to the elements of this process, would not the ground cry out under the plow and the cumin when it feels the rod? Would not the bread marvel at the harsh treatment which cannot be avoided if it is to be prepared for the master’s enjoyment (v. 28)?

So when we ask, “Why am I in this place and circumstance? Why is life so hard? Why these blows, at this moment, with this severity?”— think of the farmer.

The seed is where he put it, harvested as he knows how. Fruitfulness is achieved by the treatment which he knows is the only way to bring the crop to harvest. And beyond all else, Isaiah says, ask where the farmer acquired this knowledge and skill – why, he learned it from the Lord, who has to be marveled at for his effective working (vv. 26, 29). We are where we are by his design; the roughnesses of life are only ways which lead to the harvest he desires.

— Alec Motyer, Isaiah By the Day

God is my father. I am his daughter. He created us, and Christ chose us to bear fruit—fruit that will last. Whether from the field, from the fire, on crutches, or in a boot—Jesus will have good fruit.

So courage, dear heart. God is with us, and working in us. He will bring his harvest home.

Last, if you need a good laugh, check this out, a jaw-dropping book, try this, or a real, true song, sing right along.

Thank you for reading right to the end and thank you for praying for me. Those are very kind gifts.

With you, in his grip,

Abigail

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“Now this is what the LORD says—He who created you, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine! When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.”

—Isaiah 43:1-2 (ESV)