My wife is the best cook this side of Taillevent in Paris, yet the best thing she’s been feeding me this week is ice chips. 

At 2 a.m. Wednesday of the Baptist State Convention I woke with horrible abdominal pain and 20 hours later had emergency surgery at Wesley Long Hospital in Greensboro. Turns out my intestines got crossways with scar tissue from my appendectomy 30 years earlier.

That’s what you call a long brewing feud.

The hardest part of such surgery is getting your body to function normally again. Six inches of staples and stitches is one thing, but inside all the organs that were jerked, tugged and pulled outside my abdominal cavity tend to show their resentment by falling asleep.

And they have to be woken. Slowly. So instead of the biscuits and gravy I longed for, instead of the chateaubriand of which my wife is capable, I get ice chips. And they are delicious. 

I’ve fallen into circumstances beyond my control. It is laughable to say that, because there are no circumstances within my control. Realize it or not, that is true for you too, despite temporary changes you might be able to manipulate.

After my resignation as editor of the Biblical Recorder, some friends said, “I guess God has a different plan for your life.” My response is that God has the same plan for my life that He has always had, it’s just being revealed to me in a manner I did not anticipate.

My week’s plan was to attend the 180th annual session of the Baptist State Convention, cover the International Mission Board commissioning service at Calvary Baptist in Winston-Salem on Wednesday night; Baptist Children’s Homes' 125th anniversary event and Gardner-Webb University’s campaign announcement Thursday; work through the weekend to finish the Recorder reporting of the convention, and then attend my granddaughter Larkin’s dedication at Green Street Baptist in High Point.

Instead I’m trying to stay upright, crunching ice chips because that’s apparently all my stomach can handle right now.

And they are delicious.

Friends have been so gracious to offer prayers and practical helps. One of my best pastor friends called after my resignation to say, “I have no insights, no wisdom to offer. I’m just calling.” Ultimately, that’s what we need from a friend, to be at the other end of the line.

After surgery people called and wrote to offer prayers, which are appreciated. God knows my condition and sent “the gift of pain” as Philip Yancey and Paul Brand call it in their book by that name, to alert me that something was badly wrong inside my abdomen.

I’m sure God’s intention is to heal me. Perhaps your prayers could be to urge Him to do what He would do … quickly.

Many, many people have lost jobs in this recession. The plans they laid for work, retirement, education, helping their children, travel, recreation, and ministry have been altered because the track they were on suddenly detached from the roadbed.

Churches that intended to build, to start an international partnership, to add a staff member or keep the ones they had, to increase mission giving through the Cooperative Program suddenly find themselves unable to carry out their dream.

We planned for chateaubriand and are eating ice chips instead.

These are not times that test our faith, as much as they are times that prove our faith. And no matter our plans, when we have faith and a friend on the line in the midst of altered plans, the ice chips can be delicious.