Lashed By Storms

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version,

Chapter Twenty-Six

Mike’s Reflections

You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek Me with all your heart. - Jeremiah 29:13

  “When my deployment to Afghanistan ended, I dreaded returning to Washington. I’d seen so much destruction. Every day we attended to heartbreaking injuries—the human toll was indescribable. Navy personnel and others came with bodies sometimes broken beyond recognition. Head injuries, loss of blood and limbs—the devastation was incomprehensible.

            “And, my impending retirement was a bag of mixed emotions. We were in turmoil financially. There was a lot of uncertainty about our future. At the same time, I didn’t have any regrets. It was the right time to retire.

            “Returning to Washington was no homecoming. My family was in Colorado, and I wanted to be with them. Just seeing the Forever House was enough to make me feel depressed. I didn’t need that, not on top of the extreme feelings of sadness over what I’d experienced in Afghanistan.

            “What had been our home was now a house, an almost empty shell. What little furniture Anne had said was left behind for me was there. I couldn’t wait to be in Colorado.”

            Seeing his family in Colorado was a boost to Mike’s morale, making it hard to return to Washington and finish out his last three months with the Navy. He made several trips back and forth, before the day came when he left Washington for the last time. As they settled into being a family who no longer had to worry about deployments, Mike was so thankful for the quick response and the help Dawn and Bruce had provided his family.

            “I don’t know what I would have done without them. There was nothing I could do from Afghanistan.”

Assessing Life

            During his military career, Mike had never taken for granted the way his wife always took charge when he wasn’t home. It was she who took care of their boys, always making a house a home, scheduling appointments, paying bills, keeping vehicles serviced, staying in touch with family, and reassuring Mike everything was fine so he could focus on his work, especially when deployed.

            “I look back at my marrow transplant, and it was because of Anne I knew I’d make it. When you’re that sick for that long, you assess life differently. I thought about my family and what their future would be like if I didn’t make it. I had questions, and I realized there are things in life bigger than I am.

            “God used that period of time to grow my faith, to help me understand my hope was in Him, not just in medicine and my cheerleading wife. I didn’t know, then, He wasn’t through growing my faith.

            “During my time in Afghanistan and then back in Washington, God showed me I needed to depend on Him. Anne’s health had reached a critical state—I couldn’t think of life without her. God was showing me, in ways I needed to learn, that He wanted me to fully rely on Him.

            “Relying on our own wants and desires, rather than His desire for our lives, obviously hadn’t worked.”

The Phone Call

            Neither of them recognized the number when the phone rang. Mike looked at Anne, and said he’d get it. Anne was chewing on an ice cube, and went into the laundry room, assuming they were in receipt of a marketing call. She was in the middle of folding sheets when her husband came in.

            “You’re not going to believe this. That was the neighbor who had volunteered to stay at the house the night of the break-in, and he didn’t have good news.”

Anne asked what was wrong.

            “The house we left behind is unrecognizable,” I told her.

            “I know – but we had to take everything we could when we packed up,”Anne said.“I’m so sorry.”

            “No, you don’t understand. Everything’s gone. Our neighbor just informed me that the Forever House is in tough shape. He’s been checking on the house, and when he drove up this morning, he didn’t recognize the place. He said all the landscaping was gone. Where you had planted dahlias, rhododendrons, and hosta plants there were now holes. The plants had been dug up!”

            “Who steals landscaping?"Anne asked.

            “There’s more. I told her our neighbor had found the house vandalized. Someone hadn’t just helped themselves to plants. The integrity of the house hadn’t been protected. He told me the gas cook top had been taken from the kitchen, the water heaters were gone, and the backup heating system was gone. He said the place looked like a war zone.”

            After somewhat digesting what Mike had just been told, the couple reviewed their options. They could file a police report. They could file a lawsuit against the listing agent and her company. But they had no proof the listing agent had done this—she certainly hadn’t done anything to protect the house, but they couldn’t prove she was the one who stole plants. They also couldn’t prove she was the one who had vandalized the inside of the house.

            “Anne and I knew there wasn’t another real estate agent in the area who would be willing to take on what had become a complete disaster. We were paying for our disobedience. We stopped the mortgage payments—because it made more sense to put aside what we could for an eventual down payment on a house in Colorado. We knew we would need every dime we could manage to save.

            “Anne and I would have loved to take the realtor to court, but we didn’t have the money. We didn’t have any proof. We had divested ourselves of any financial involvement. No one but a shyster lawyer would take our case, and we’d be out more money.

            “The losses we were experiencing weren’t isolated incidents. They were interwoven in the web of our disobedience to God. We hadn’t listened to any of the messages He gave us through Anne’s doctors; we ignored them from the first time they advised us to live in a higher, drier climate. We wanted to follow our hearts and we presented our desires to God, instead of aligning our wills with His. We were determined to stay in Washington.

  “We didn’t trust God with our future. As a result, we had financial challenges, my wife’s health was severely compromised, and once again, our boys were having to adjust to a new environment. No wonder we suffered so many losses.”

God’s Provision

  After Mike joined his family in Colorado, he was in Estes Park one morning, completing errands. Before heading home, he decided to stop by the hospital. The ER was quiet. A charge nurse asked if she could help him. Mike told her why he had stopped in. She informed him the hospital was needing an emergency room doctor, and asked for his résumé.

     “With so much on my mind, I hadn’t even thought to bring paperwork of any kind. I jotted my name and contact information on a sticky note. That afternoon, I received a call to come back the following day for an interview. The job was mine if I wanted it. I accepted.”

  Mike knew his new position would be the perfect environment to fully transition from military emergency medicine to civilian emergency medicine

"I hadn’t let go of all that had happened while I was in Afghanistan, nor of the mixed bag of emotions surrounding my retirement. And while I hadn’t looked for work the traditional way, God knew what I needed, and He provided.”

***

The Schlegels were paying a high price for their disobedience to God. It took courage for them to share such personal experiences and thoughts, yet again. I was grateful they were willing to open up their hearts and their lives—knowing they were now following what God was asking of them.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Continue to Chapter 27