Silver Linings – Part 2

In an earlier post I mentioned that God can have good come out of even the worst tragedies. That doesn’t minimize or trivialize the pain, suffering, and anguish of the disasters we face. It simply recognizes that there is some good happening in the midst of these terrible trials, and often some good can result from the trial.

In addition to the blessings of people helping other people during the recent snowstorm, God made another uncomfortable situation better than it might otherwise have been. We received such blessings on Thursday, having to do with my surgery. I had to have additional Mohs surgery to remove a basal cell cancer from my nose. This was done in the doctor’s office at in Fishkill on Thursday, when it snowed all day. We decided to get it done rather than cancel and reschedule because of the snow storm.

The bad news was that it took the dermatologist five tries before he got all the cancer, same as my last time back in October. The good news was that since so many patients cancelled because of the snow, I was finished and out of there by about 12:15. Last time I was there it took until after three in the afternoon.

Originally the plastic surgery to close me up was to take place at Vassar Hospital in Poughkeepsie, but there was a last minute change and it was rescheduled for Fishkill. Again because of cancellations, there weren’t many patients at Fishkill Ambulatory Surgery. Talk about personalized attention – it was great. The plastic surgery took about 3 hours, same as last time, but we didn’t have the long drive down route 9 in the snow to get home.

So I give God the glory, praise and thanksgiving – that he can bring some good out of just about anything. Or at least make something a little less unpleasant. God provides a silver lining to just about any storm we encounter. God used his people to help and bring comfort to those who needed it during this snowstorm and its aftermath. He even made my medical procedures go much better than expected. So when things aren’t going well for you, look for the silver lining. It’ll be there.