Posted By RichC on June 9, 2026
It has been a tough few weeks for our niece Sarah and the Gerber family in Atlanta … and for those who pray, they could use some prayer.
Brenda’s sister, brother-in-law, and Jessica have been keeping the family up-to-date on Sarah’s recent hospital admission (for those who have been to the ER lately, you know the insanity and long wait).
Sarah has lived with and treated her chiasmal optic glioma since she was 5 years old. She has had several episodes requiring surgery, chemotherapy, and shunts to relieve the pressure, but recently had terrible headaches and made trips to the ER. After a recent MRI, doctors have decided that there was enough change/growth, possible brain bleeds, and have noticed the shunt is not properly relieving the pressure. This week, she is scheduled for brain surgery that could last 6 or more hours. She and her family could use as many prayer requests as possible.
My daughter Katelyn included the prayer below … and sister Jessica brought the only flowers permitted in the hospital room (Lego flowers).
FOR THOSE FACING INVASIVE, CRITICAL, OR HIGH-RISK PROCEDURES, AND FOR THOSE FRAUGHT WITH WORRY…
As I approach this procedure
I acknowledge my own fears at the possibility of outcomes I cannot control.
O God unshaken by any circumstance, be now my rock and my refuge.
Still my racing thoughts.
Speak peace to this gale-storm of my insecurities. In the midst of my concerns, give me grace to receive without bitterness the presence and support of friends who, seeking to ease fears they cannot understand, might utter unhelpful things.
Give me also grace to trust, to rest my trepidations in you, for your purposes and your presence transcend all possible outcomes.
Whether the end result of this procedure brings news that is good, bad, or uncertain, nothing that is essential or eternal will have changed;
My great hope is secure.
Let me rest in that.
At the end of this day,
I will still be your child, utterly dependent on you, utterly loved by you.
At the end of this day,
my life will yet be hidden with Christ, even as it now is.
I will remain an heir to the promise that this imperfect, mortal body, though it faces temporary decline, will one day be swallowed up in a glorious immortality.
We pray for good outcomes from this procedure, O Lord.
We ask for good outcomes,
pleading that you would be mindful of our mortal frailties,
but we know that regardless of the tidings to come, you are tender and present and sovereign over all circumstance, and what is more,
you love us fiercely and eternally.
Therefore I would trust you to lead me well along the paths of any wild and perilous country.
You are my shepherd.
This day will hold no surprises for you.
Let me rest in that.
Amen.
Category: Archive, Faith, Health, Medical, Personal |
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Tags: atlanta, chiasmal optic glioma, family, gerbers, hospital, prayer, sarah, surgery
in, mine too!
although I do keep my K4RDC vanity license and often contemplate getting my radios out again. 
