Wrather Thoughts

A daily journal of the thoughts, ideas, and life of Ed Wrather who is a pastor and writer of the Burning Bush Devotional www.theburningbush.net wrather@dobsonteleco.com

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Outpatient surgery today to remove polyps on vocal cord went well with no problems. Should know Monday or Tuesday whether they were benign. Thanks to all those who prayed and are praying about this problem with my voice!!

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Tomorrow I will be having a couple of polyps removed from my vocal cords. I have been having more and more problems speaking since January 2005 when I had the flu. Hopefully and prayerfully this will solve the problem. It is somewhat embarrasing to be preaching and then to suddenly not be able to say anything. This happened to me on Easter Sunday this year with a full sanctuary. Many did come back Sunday night and I accused them of just coming to see if my voice would stop again. I have not preached very much since then. Of course it is not as bad as the man who wrote in his book that he had a problem when he first started preaching with fainting. He would be preaching and then just suddenly faint. It did result in larger crowds because everyone wanted to see if he was going to faint again. The problem eventually went away but it did make him draw closer to the Lord. My physical problems have drawn me closer to Him as well.
When the enemy comes, when the problems come, when things don't work out like we thought they would, when someone stabs us in the back, we need to focus not on our circumstances, situations, problems but upon the Lord. As the writer of Hebrews puts it in Hebrews 12:3, "Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful man so that you do not grow weary and lose heart."