The Blind Side

You won't need to run. No one is chasing you. The LORD God of Israel will lead and protect you from enemy attacks.

That's from Isaiah 52:12.

About 12 hours ago, I was laying awake thanks to a schizophrenic baby monitor. We've had a lot of problems in the new house - it seems the only way the enemy can get at us is through our appliances and such. But nonetheless, it has made an already stressful situation worse. I had my first full blown panic attack yesterday morning and my poor husband had to follow that up with a full day of work.

So, this morning, encouraged by what I'd read in a book earlier in the week, I decided to speak directly to the problem. As I did that, claiming Christ's love over our family and everything in our house, an interesting thought came to mind.

You see - Texas Children's has a movie channel. It seems every time we've been there overnight, the movie The Blind Side has been on. Sophia calls it "Big Mike." We watch while doing other things and I am certainly no football buff. In fact this week, I denied the Lombardi nominees the opportunity to meet my princess as she was sound asleep. (I'm sure I shall receive some snarky comments due to this!)

But as I lay there in the wee morning hours, The Holy Spirit planted the thought in my head. You see, Sandra Bullock at the beginning of the movie goes through the reason why left tackles are so valuable, thus setting up Michael Oher's story. My short version is this:

The quarterback is the leader of the team. How he does makes or breaks a team/season/program. He makes the calls and directs the team, either through a another player or his own arm, to victory. And right next door, due to LT's hit on a famous dude, whose name I can't remember, he has his own personal bodyguard - the left tackle - to keep him safe.

I KNOW I am oversimplifying (and Dave would be horrified) so bear with me. While quarterbacks are often the "face" of a team - left tackles are somewhat in the background. They are "the heavy," doing the dirty work of blocking and clearing a path for the quarterback and others to be successful.

I think The Lord used that I'd seen this movie so many times to reassure me. You see, Dave and I are the quarterbacks of this team. We are orchestrating Sophia's treatment and care - she is the football we are trying to get to the end zone. Our job is to make sure she gets there safe and sound by all methods available to us. We have a team of doctors, nurses and supporting family and friends (like you) helping us do that.

But the real power is just to the left.

Yes - we have experience tremendous stress and strife, in our face, much like a quarterback when the action starts.

But what really makes me wonder is what we haven't had to experience because The Lord, as Isaiah points out, is our rear guard. How much has He stopped because it is just not His Will for the enemy to crush us and steal our sweet girl? He is doing this all behind the scenes and so often, it can feel like we are forgotten.

But the truth of Scripture is clear. We are protected, we don't have to panic, He is leading us out and covering us behind. There is nothing that comes to us that does not first pass under His Eye and Hands. Nothing gets past those.

Any good football player/fan will tell you that quarterbacks are not immune to difficulty. We are being roughed up for sure. While we maybe bruised, we are not crushed. It is the hardest game we will ever play, we face many hungry defenders looking to intercept our victory. But we will walk off this field victorious, with our precious package safe in our arms, completely healed.

We are safe in the pocket, able to keep playing because Jehovah has our blind side.

P.S. We got the radiation schedule today. She starts in the 13th or 14th week of chemo with 5-6 weeks of radiation, 5 days a week. And the chemo keeps rolling too. We are dreading it but the combo is a 98% cure rate. Any coach will tell you for a 98% win ratio, he'd go for 4 and 1 every time. So will we. Keep praying, warriors.