Let it grow, let it grow, let it grow . . .

So, my whole life my left leg has been a good inch shorter than my right leg (hmm...can you see where this post is headed?). I actually don't remember when I realized this fact. It was well into my teenage years, AT LEAST. Heck, my own mom didn't even know until I pointed it out to her two months ago as she was hemming some trousers for me. Within the past 4 or 5 years I've heard people tell tales of having one leg shorter than the other and them praying and it growing. I would always think, "Oh, that's great for them!" But I never thought about praying it for myself.

Let's fast forward to Sunday night. They asked for people to stand up who needed an impossible healing -- healing for something doctors have said there's not hope of healing. The thought crossed my mind - should I stand up? - but I thought better of it since I still wasn't experiencing any pain or discomfort from my oddity.

Now let's fast forward to Monday night/Tuesday morning. I was finishing my third and final night shift and I noticed a slight ache in my left leg - the shorter leg. Strange, I thought. I have a method of popping my femur - weird, I know, but it does make it feel better if there's some pressure on it. So I tried it, but the pain didn't go away. I suffered through the night and then stumbled home at 9:15 a.m. to sleep for a few hours before attempting to readjust to regular working hours. The pain was constant, but not unbearable, for the rest of the day. Wed morning I was as good as new . . . so I thought.

Every Wednesday a.m. we have Team Training. One week it's with just the Nightshelter team at the house, the next week at the offices in town with both the NS and hostel teams all together. I love Team Training. We had a guest speaker who gave a wonderful talk about Abraham's faith and how to remain faithful and believe in God's promises, even when you mess up like Abe did; but that's irrelevant to this post. At the end the speaker spent some time praying and prophesying over us. When he prayed over me he said I needed to know it was ok to pray for myself; I shouldn't discount myself. He said it's wonderful that I love to pray for and minister to others, but I needed to also take time out to pray into my own life. It was a good word, but I quickly ran off to do a cover shift at the hostel and it went out of my mind.

My friend Zoe prayed for me when we were covering at the hostel. A simple prayer for healing. She also prayed for my leg to grow. It didn't. By that evening my leg was killing me. I couldn't move or walk around much. I had friends over for dinner so it was nice just chillin' with them; it took my mind off the pain. I got some more prayer for the pain to go. It didn't. And for my leg to grow. It didn't.

But Thursday morning I woke up and felt back to normal! Praise God, the pain was gone . . . until I went into work that afternoon and had to make a trip to the shop. After the 15 min walk I was nearly in tears and limping like an old man. But I sucked it up, completed my shopping and walked back to the shelter where I continued to get the house ready for the evening (it didn't help that I was the only one officially on shift until 5:30). By 6:15 two other team members plus two volunteers were with me praying for the evening and the guys coming in at 7. I told them about the pain in my leg, so they prayed for healing. It didn't happen. They prayed for it to grow. My leg didn't so much as tingle. So I suffered through the rest of the night (but it was an awesome night 'cause I got to chat and pray with two of the residents!). I had hoped one of the residents would be bold enough to ask to pray for me and see something miraculous happen! Yeah, that didn't happen either.

So let's fast forward to tonight - Friday night. Around 9 Justyna and I were sitting outside enjoying a cuppa and chit-chatting. She had laughed at me earlier when she saw me limping around. So sitting out there I mentioned how I thought God was going to make me ask for prayer for my leg on Sunday, esp since the sermon will be about extraordinary healings. She asked if I didn't want to, and I said something along the lines of, Yeah, I guess I do. Full of faith, I am! Then she asked about the pain and if it hurt for real. Um, YEAH! Then she asked if I had prayed for myself. I just started laughing. 'Cause right when she asked that, I remembered the word that was spoken over me on Wednesday morning. Of course I hadn't prayed for myself! The thought hadn't even crossed my mind! So I told her why I was laughing and that made her laugh.

The thing about Justyna is we always have a great laugh when we're together. And it's rare we ever stop laughing long enough to have serious conversations (well, that's a bit of an exaggeration). So when she asked if we should "try out what the bible says" and pray for healing for my leg, I wasn't too sure she was serious. Esp since she was laughing as she said it. But abt 10 min later we stopped laughing long enough for me to show her the difference in lengths of my femurs. Even outside, in the dark, by the firelight, it was quite noticable. So she prayed a simple prayer for healing and for my leg to grow. Then I prayed a simple prayer for healing and for my leg to grow. We were fighting laughter the whole time, just 'cause that's the way we roll. But obviously God took us serious because when we opened our eyes and inspected my legs THEY WERE THE SAME LENGTH! Seriously! MY FLIPPIN' LEG GREW!

I kept walking and jumping around to see if the pain had gone, but it hadn't. But that didn't matter: MY LEG GREW!!!! I almost couldn't believe it -- it's still boggling my mind as I write this post! So I called a friend to come over, even though it was 10 p.m., so he could have a look 'cause he's one that had seen it before and had prayed for it. He definitely noticed the change. WHAT THE HECK?!

So the moral(s) of the story: God is a God of miracles! And when He tells you to pray for yourself, PRAY FOR YOURSELF!

Oh, and fyi, my leg still hurts. But I don't mind the pain now. It's just growing pains!