Blind Trust {Mom Had Some Surgery...}

Have you ever truly believed in something without proof?
It's not the easiest thing to do.
As humans we like to know what we are getting into
before we actually have to get into it.
It's hard to dive into a swimming pool when you are unsure of the depth.
It's hard to cross a rickety bridge when you wonder if it can and will hold your weight.
By far, Blind Trust is easier discussed than practiced.
But I've got a real life story that illustrates the reward of trusting blindly.
It goes something like this...

My mom had surgery on her finger a few weeks ago.

She had been having pain and extreme sensitivity to hot/cold

in the tip of the middle finger of her left hand.

Her orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Jeffrey Garst,

suggested an MRI be taken to see what could be found.
(For those of you who don't know,
MRI stands for Magnetic Resonance Imaging
that creates a high-tech visual look at the inside of the body.)
Dr. Garst had made an educated assumption that there was small tumor
under the fingernail of Mom's third finger.
For some reason, the MRI showed there was nothing abnormal
with Mom's hand.
But strangely enough,

Dr. Garst was certain the tumor was there anyway. 
He asked my mom to trust him and his instincts
and allow him to perform surgery on her finger
to locate and remove the tumor.

Honestly, if it had been me,
I don't know what my answer to him would've been.
Dr. Garst has successfully completed several different surgical procedures
on my mom in the last few years,
but I still don't know if I would be able to allow him
to go "hunting" for a tumor he thinks is there,
but for some reason didn't show up on an MRI.
Interestingly enough though, Mom didn't seem to have an issue with this.

She trusted him and allowed him to remove half of her fingernail.

Before the actual surgery, however,
Dr. Garst gave mom a marker and had her mark on her fingernail
exactly where the worst pain seemed to be coming from.
She indicated along the cuticle line of the right side of her finger.
Once Dr. Garst removed that half of the nail and peeled back the skin,
he was able to see that the tumor really was there
exactly where mom  had indicated
and just as he had predicted.
Why the MRI didn't pick it up, we aren't sure,
but the tumor was there exactly what Dr. Garst said it would be.
Dr. Garst successfully removed the tumor,
and apart from normal post-surgical tenderness,
Mom has been pain-free ever since.

In light of this, I had to ask myself,
"What if Mom had rejected the surgery
because she believed what was on the MRI (what she could see)
versus what her experienced physician told her (what she couldn't see)?"
She would most likely still be in constant pain
and possibly looking for another explanation for her discomfort.
But instead, she blindly trusted her physician
and has since been cured of her pain.
How has she able to do that?
How was she able to trust him without proof?

Well, #1: She was able to trust Dr. Garst
based on her previous experiences with him.
As I previously mentioned, Dr. Garst has performed multiple surgeries
on mom before and they all have had successful outcomes.
#2: Dr. Garst was very open and honest with Mom.
He explained to her that the kind of tumor she had was very rare
and have been known to go undetected on an MRI.
#3: Dr. Garst took time to really listen to his patient.
He encouraged Mom to (a) show him exactly where the pain was,
(b) describe the pain in vivid detail,
and (c) express her thoughts and concerns about the surgery
(which included pros and cons to having the surgery
and/or not having it).

Even with all those reassurances,
in my opinion, it was still a Pretty Big Deal
that she let Dr. Garst hack into her finger
(Wow...that sounded kind of violent...).
But she did it.
She took a breath, said a prayer, and jumped.
And she's better off for it.

Can't the same be said about trusting in God?
Aren't we always better off when we follow His ways
instead of relying on our own devices?
I'm not saying it's easy.
I'm saying its worth it.
Scripture lays it out plainly for us:
"As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts."
That's God saying that to us.
He's calling us to completely put our trust in Him,
even when we don't see or truly understand what He is up to.

I can't speak for you,
but I think I'm going to give Blind Trust a try.
I'm choosing to believe what God has stated very clearly in His Word.
I want to see what He can do with this mess of a girl.
And, Lord knows, He's the only One Who can make
this piece of dirt into a vessel fit for His Service.
Somebody hand me a blindfold...:).