A Curse and A Blessing

I frequently check my book reviews that I receive on-line. My first book, I'm Listening With a Broken Ear, has over 100 reviews and all but a very few are 5 star, so I was shocked to see a 1 star review. 1 star! I was shattered. Steeling myself, I read the review. It was glowing. It praised the book, the message, and our work with Honeybun. I realized the 1 star rating was a mistake. She clearly didn't mean to give me 1 star...but there it was, an indelible blot on my record, lowering my rating. A destructive mistake.

I had finished collating, typing, and editing my 93 year old friend, Comer's, poems. Then I had taken this new collection of 120 or so poems, that he wrote in about a month, and I compiled and sent them to the Publisher. The proof arrived in the mail a couple of days ago. Just in time. Comer is doing very poorly- now on double pain killers for inexplicable, unbearable pain in his hip. His wife Evelyn, one floor below in the Alzheimer Unit, can no longer swallow and is bed ridden. The drumbeat grows faster and louder for both of them.

When I tiptoed into his room at the nursing home, he was asleep. I know visits mean the world to him, so I called his name. He opened his eyes.
"Sorry to wake you," I said, "But I didn't want to leave without you knowing I'd been here." (The cry of every human heart...)
"Oh I never sleep," he said.
I handed him the Poetry book.
He smiled broadly, and ran his finger down the shiny, sleek cover.
"Isn't this beautiful? Well now this makes me very happy."
He quickly opened it up.
"I'm going to read this right now."
"Well then I will leave you to it. If you find mistakes, call me. This is just the proof. I can still edit changes."
As I left, he was engrossed in his book, a smile on his wrinkled face.

A curse and a blessing, all in one day, both involving books.

A friend wrote to me and told me that her husband broke his shoulder. In the process of xrays and diagnosing him, the doctor found a stage 2 cancer in his lungs. Had the man not broken his shoulder, the cancer would have gone undetected. Now, hopefully, it was caught in time to be treated and cured. Who would have imagined praising God for a broken shoulder? Sometimes what looks like a curse is really a blessing.

I don't know how the 1 star rating will end up being anything other than a curse, but I have learned that God is always present, always working, and always surprising. Nothing happens that He doesn't permit, and "all things work together for the good of those who love God, who have been called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28) I think the most important lesson to remember from my day of curse and blessing was to thank God for all of it. You never know when being broken may lead you to the root of a problem that must, and can be healed.

Romans 8:31 (NIV)
What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?



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