This race has taught me many, many lessons, but the one I've recently learned is that God really does answer our prayers.
This story actually started about 5 years ago, when I got my first plantar's wart on my foot. At first it didn't bother me and I thought nothing of it. I tried over the counter "acid" to get rid of it, but I couldn't. Over time that 1 multiplied into 28!!! I tried pills to get rid of the warts and even getting them cut with a scalpel to then be frozen off multiple times, but nothing worked. We were about 3 months out to leave for the race when my doctor said the only remaining possibility was laser surgery. The laser surgery was the last and best option but it's success rate is only 66%. But since I desperately wanted the warts gone, and I was losing my wonderful health insurance (props to State Farm's health insurance!), I jumped at the chance thinking this would be the end of them! I had the surgery and thought I was finally in the clear. . .
I began to notice the return of the warts in our second month, Moldova. I was crushed. In Ireland we worked alongside Mark Marks, a man of God who has been given the power to heal. Through Mark's ministry I had him pray for the healing of my feet and still nothing. Then month four, India, I gave multiple sermons on the power of prayer. I really started to desperately pray to God for healing. I mean come on God what else do you want, I am praying to you and even preaching sermons about prayer. But through it all the warts were getting worse. Thanks God.
This is when my wife stepped in. She stated that I wasn't giving God a chance to prove his power to me because I was busy trying to take matters into my own hands. As in I had been trying to scrap and cut away the warts in Ireland and India. Why would God heal me if I didn't honestly believe that He could handle it? I needed to stop trying to heal myself and truly believe that my prayers to God were enough. Great . . . Trust that God will miraculously heal me from the warts that had plagued me for the last 5 years. I stopped trying to heal myself and solely relied on God to heal me.
Fast forward to month 8 Thailand. . . It was our first Sunday at our new church for the month and we had gotten there early. As I was sitting waiting for church to start, I noticed an itching sensation in my right foot where my biggest wart clan lived. I turned my foot over and started itching it and as I itched dead skin fell off where my warts were. Underneath the dead skin lay pink, fresh skin that was wart free!!! I checked my other wart spots and they were also clearing up!! I immediately started to cry and hurried outside to a quiet place near a creek and thanked God. God does answer our prayers, but we need to remember that God answers our prayers on HIS time, not ours. Also we need to remember, prayers without faith are worthless. . . Just something to consider.
Miracles come in all different sizes to people and to God. To me, God getting rid of my warts was a miracle. I was honestly convinced that I would be plagued with these awful things for the rest of my life. Plantar warts only go away if your body heals itself of the disease (which hadn't happened in a 5 yr span) or you get them removed by a doctor (all those attempts had failed) or God heals you!! I am beginning to realize miracles happen around us all the time, but we have blinded ourselves from seeing them or really acknowledging them as miracles. We think that miracles need to be flashy and earth shattering or we discredit miracles with more "realistic" solutions. But miracles are real and it's up to you to see them.
