My husband David and I were in Colorado Springs visiting our son when we received a call that my father had suffered a heart attack.
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We packed our bags and flew home a day early to be with him, knowing that a storm by the name of "Ike" was also threatening to make landfall in Texas two days later.
As we walked into our home from the airport, the phone rang. "Ok, let's get it," my husband said boldly as he hung up the phone. He turned to me and said, "Shannon that was the doctor. I have cancer."
My father, a hurricane, and now my husband. A feeling of numbness overtook me. It was as if my eyes wanted to explode with tears, but my stubbornness interceded. "Not now," I thought. This was no time for breaking down.
I quietly ascended the stairs and snuggled into my overstuffed "prayer chair." As I prepared to pour out my heart in formal declarations so that God would "really" hear me, the strangest thing happened. In place of eloquence came only four words: "God, I trust you."
Praying through hot tears for over an hour, the only words I could seem to whisper during my entire prayer time were the same: "God, I trust you."
Can't I come up with anything better than this? I thought. After all, these were larger than life situations that needed larger than life prayers. That's when I heard four more words in my heart: "Keep on pressing on." It was as if the coach of my team had just stepped up to home plate while I was at bat and whispered in my ear, "You can do it! I'm right here with you."
Source: Crosswalk.com
Shannon Perry is a speaker/singer whose new If The Shoe Fits women's conferences combine her teaching prowess with her musical talent. Perry's new music CD entitled The Real Thing (produced by Lifeway writer/producer Paul Marino) features songs specifically written to fit in with the theme of the conferences. Perry wrote the bulk of the original presentation in hospital waiting rooms while her husband was undergoing cancer treatment. Perry earned her Master's Degree in Education with an emphasis in counseling and taught in the public school system for over fourteen years before entering into full-time ministry. She has previously-released music projects with both Daywind and Benson Records which garnered radio airplay on the national Christian charts. She has performed with the Houston Symphony and has even appeared at Carnegie Hall. She has been a featured soloist at the J&J Music Conferences in Houston, Texas, and led praise and worship at numerous women's conferences and for the national Lifeway conferences held annually in New Mexico and North Carolina. For more information, visit www.ShannonPerry.com
