Setbacks or Set-Rights? Seeing God’s Hand in the Delay

What men see as setbacks You see as set-rights. This phrase was coined this past summer in the pediatric intensive care unit. It was a time Habakkuk 3:17-18 felt very near. “Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no produce on the vines, though the yield of the olive should fail and the fields yield no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls, Yet I will exult in Yahweh; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.” How deeply I felt the former in the sense there was one whom I loved dearly who was near death and my heart could not bare to have her go. How could I rejoice in this trial?

My families summer journey began the end of June when it was discovered that my dear niece Valley had several large holes in her heart. The very same week we heard the news, she fell ill with pneumonia and spent several days at the hospital. Following, it was decided she would be sent home to regain her strength and return in August for open heart surgery. There was a heaviness over last summer hard to descibe. An invisible inner wrestling loomed over my mind with the dread of knowing Valley needed open heart surgery and all that that would include. What if this, what if that, will she survive? Thoughts came and went but never strayed too far.  Little did I know that which I was dreading would be the very thing I would beg our Lord for in time to come.

The ominous week was finally upon us and so was sickness. How? We spent all summer healthy and the week of her surgery sickness struck. Why? Perhaps she won’t get it. Oh, but did she get it and get it good. All too quickly surgery had been postponed. What we had hoped for quickly faided as her health began to detiorate rapidly. It seemed as if overnight she went from smiling in our arms to being intubated in the ICU drifting away. Heart surgery was no longer a dread but rather a necessity and a necessity that could not happen because she was too sick. Too sick to survive the surgery. Too unstable to try anything serious. What to do but wait.

The strength of my brother-in-law and sister astounds me every day. All summer we had prepared for one week at the hospital but our Lord turned it into six adrenaline high weeks. Valley seemed to digress from bad to worse by the minute. Alarms were a constant noise, new machines kept appearing, and codes came far too often for our weary hearts.

It was during this season our Lord taught me much. Of highest importance He taught me to rejoice. How could I rejoice? Because the verse continues: “Yahweh, the Lord, is my strength, And He has set my feet like hinds feet and makes me tread on my high places” (Hab. 3:19). Had my Lord not chosen this lot for my family (Ps.16)? Had my Lord not ordained our steps (Ps. 37)? Yes, yes He had and in that my heart could rest even if He called Valley home. My strength came not from within me, but in Him alone and His strength brought me to rejoice as my eyes began to shift to see how He was at work even in the storm of sleepless nights, woeful news, and sea of tears.

How was He at work? For one thing far beyond what I know but He showed me what men see as setbacks He sees as set-rights. I recall thinking “Hannah do you not think that your all sovereign, omniscent, loving and caring God does not know what is best for His children including the very timing for Valley’s open heart surgery?” Pneumonia, covid, intubation, etc. may be inconvenient, stressful setbacks to you but perhaps they are the very set-rights your Lord will use to ensure Valley has surgery at the very time she needs to have surgery.  Whether that was the case or not the point is God knows what is best. God knows what you are going through. He is with You, and His ways and purposes are higher than your desires in your situation. He cares for you deeply. He is perfectly good and loves you earnestly. And He will provide that which you need when it is needed.

In times of distress do you flee to God? It is only in Him that you will maintain spiritual composure under the darkest of circumstances. It is only in Him that you will be able to rejoice in His bidding. And it is only in Him that you will have a hopeful expectation no matter the outcome.  I pray wherever life finds you in this moment that you find your strength in God and not wrestle with the setbacks before you but trust our Lord. He is at work and will accomplish that which He has set to do. “Yahweh will accomplish what concerns me; O Yahweh, Your lovingkindness endures forever; Do not fail the works of Your hands” (Ps. 138:8).

Yahweh had work to do in all our lives and that He did. My last weekend at the hospital with Valley I wrote "The last six weeks have been trying. It is easy to breath a sigh of relief now because we are on the other side. We are no longer holding our breaths doubting she will make it. She's healing, she's smiling. I was telling Chloa the other day 'I wish we had a picture of her now when this all began, but then how would faith and hope and courage and strength and peace grow.' It is wrestling in the waiting and leaning on our loving Lord that we grow in His graces." How true that is. So wherever life finds you lean into Him and grow. There truly is no better place.

Much more I could write but for another day perhaps. For now I leave you with two poems I found great comfort in during those dark days. May we not forget who our God is and may we cling to Him through it all.

The shuttles of His purpose move

To carry out His own design;

Seek not too soon to disapprove

His work, not yet assign

Dark motives, when, with silent tread,

You view some somber fold;

For lo, within each darker thread

There twines a thread of gold.

Spin cheerfully,

Not tearfully,

He knows the way you plod;

Spin carefully

Spin prayerfully,

But leave the thread with God.

(Canadian Home Journal)

Last night I heard a robin singing in the rain,

And the raindrop’s patter made a sweet refrain,

Making all the sweater the music of the strain.

So, I though, when trouble comes, as trouble will,

Why should I stop singing? Just beyond the hill

It may be that sunshine floods the green world still.

He who faces the trouble with a heart of cheer

Makes the burden lighter. If there falls a tear,

Sweeter is the cadence in the song we hear.

I have learned your lesson, bird with spotted wing,

Listening to your music with its tune of spring —

When the storm cloud darkens, it’s the time to sing.

(Eben Eugene Rexford)

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3QGSabEfS3lRpKszezegJA?si=GmhxmxeyT1OSae10R8t0VQ