I have a handicap placard in my car and have to use it sometimes for parking. I have good days and bad days. For you see, I have a hidden secret. Since I had leukemia and a bone marrow transplant, I had to take some really harsh medications. I took high-dose chemotherapy for two and a half years and high-dose steroids for two years. The combination of these harsh medications caused a disease called avascular necrosis or AVN. This is a hidden disease that “ate up” the soft tissue in the bones of my legs, hips, ankles, shoulders, and elbows.
The hard outer shell of my bones is still good, but there is nothing inside propping up the outer hard bone or my joints. My soft inner bone is now mush. I am at risk for major breaks with any abrupt impact or movement. In my future, many joints will have to be replaced, the diseased inner bone vacuumed out, and polymethylmethacrylate (bone cement) will be put into my bones. But I continue to pray for divine healing for this illness; I do not give up!
But also, I have another secret. I also have a piercing pain in my heart for a family member. I will not get into detail, but this person needs a personal father-child type relationship with our sweet Lord and Savior. The problem is that this person does not realize or think they are lacking this relationship. This person believes there is a God and God had a son that came to this earth to die for our sins, BUT that is enough. This person continues to live a life of total disregard for the immense and deep need they have for a deep, loving relationship with God and the way God wants this person to live his or her life.
This type of person is the hardest person to get to change and depend wholly on our loving Savior. Do you have someone in your life you are praying for? As the song says, “don’t stop praying, don’t stop calling on Jesus’ name.”
The next time you see someone with a handicap sticker, and they look healthy, please remember my hidden secret of my disease that no one can visually see. And also give people grace, for they may also have a very painful hidden secret of a lost loved one in their heart that causes them so much heartache that sometimes hurts worse than a physical disease.
So, don’t stop praying! God is working constantly on all your hidden secrets!
Jeri Lynn Daniel
Lean into Jesus Ministries
#jerilynndanielblogs
NIV John 18:1 – “Then Jesus told his disciples…always pray and do not give up”.