Sometimes life gives you lemons, and we all know the saying that it is our responsibility to make lemonade. But what if you do not even like lemonade? What do you do then? You cannot just sit around juggling the lemons. Well, I guess you could, but a year from now you would still be standing in the same place, carrying the same fear, pain, and frustration. Maybe the lemons were never meant to become lemonade at all. Maybe they were meant to clean something, heal something, or completely shift your perspective
A few days before my 40th birthday, I received a phone call that changed everything. My 38-year-old sister, Kristie, had suffered a stroke and had been rushed to Oklahoma City. I immediately got in my car and drove 4.5 hours to be with her, praying the entire way for a miracle only God could perform.
When I arrived, she was in ICU. At first, she was stable, but things quickly became more serious. Her brain began to swell, and the neurosurgeon along with the medical team believed surgery was too risky. They explained that removing part of her skull to allow for the swelling could leave her unable to come off a ventilator. In that moment, our family was faced with the possibility of losing her.
One of the most heartbreaking moments was having to tell her young son what was happening to his mother. There are simply no words for that kind of pain. We wanted to be strong, but our hearts were breaking.
So we did the only thing we knew to do. We called on God.
We called in the pastor for prayer. We gathered around Kristie’s hospital bed, anointed her with oil, and cried out to Heaven. These were not polished prayers. They were desperate prayers from hurting hearts believing God for a miracle. We prayed that Kristie would live and not die. We prayed for healing, mercy, and strength.
What makes this story even more incredible to me is that all of this happened during the week of my 40th birthday. My Facebook was flooded with birthday messages and notifications from people telling me “Happy Birthday.” Normally, I would have simply responded with a quick thank you, but God had another plan. Every birthday message became an opportunity to ask someone to pray for my sister. Had it not been my birthday week, many of those people would have never been in my algorithms at that exact moment. But God knew exactly what He was doing. What an awesome God we serve!
I placed a radio beside Kristie’s bed and played the song “Where I Belong” by Building 429 over and over again. The lyrics filled the ICU room while we waited, prayed, and trusted God.
“Sometimes it feels like I’m watchin’ from the outside
Sometimes it feels like I’m breathin’, but am I alive?
All I know is I’m not home yet
This is not where I belong
Take this world and give me Jesus
This is not where I belong.”
Those words became more than lyrics. They became our prayer. They became our declaration of faith in the middle of fear.
And my God… oh, my God… He answered.
God spared my sister.
When Kristie finally woke up, she asked her ex-husband, who was sitting beside her bed, why she had that song stuck in her head. He smiled and told her, “Because Kassie has had it playing on the radio over and over.” Even while she was unconscious, God was ministering to her spirit. He was present in that room the entire time.
The doctors had prepared us for the worst, but God had the final say. Within six months, Kristie was back home raising her son again. What looked impossible became possible through the grace and power of God.
That season completely changed my perspective. Suddenly, turning 40 no longer seemed scary. The things I had worried about before felt so small compared to the gift of life itself. God used what I thought were lemons in ways I never could have imagined. What I thought was simply a birthday week became a prayer chain reaching people all over. What looked like tragedy became testimony. What felt hopeless became proof that miracles still happen.
Sometimes God allows us to walk through moments where all human answers run out so we can witness His power more clearly. Sometimes the miracle is not just in the healing itself, but in watching God move through people, prayer, worship, and faith.
So if you are walking through a difficult season right now, do not give up. Keep praying. Keep believing. Keep trusting. Even when the report sounds final. Even when fear feels louder than faith. Even when all you can do is cry out to God, cry out anyway.
Because the same God who met us in that ICU room still performs miracles today.