09 Aug Push, or that baby is gonna die

There are certain words that are spoken to you that literally change you in an instant.

On August 9, 1998 around 7pm I was headed back to church where there were about 500 students packed in our auditorium for a Youth event. I was driving around New Circle Road in Lexington, Kentucky and was 36 weeks pregnant. I had 2 teens in a truck behind me; they were carrying about 100 pizzas to feed all the starving young people after service. Now remember this was before we had cell phones. My water broke while I was driving and I was surprisingly very calm. I just kept driving to the church because I knew I needed to get my husband. I pulled up and told the teens that were following me to go in and get my husband and tell him I needed to go to the hospital because I was in labor.   He, of course, was seated on the front row, where they proceeded to get him out of service in a bit of a scurry (and lacking any discretion).

I wasn’t supposed to be in labor. I had another month to go. In just a few days we were moving into our new home. I didn’t have the nursery ready. I hadn’t taken my Lamaze classes yet. I didn’t have a bag packed. I was not ready!

I wanted nothing more than to go home, shower, pack a bag, and then drive to hospital. My contractions were not bad. I felt I had plenty of time, but my family refused to allow me to do this. I got settled in a room at the hospital and about 7 hours later the contractions began. The pain was intense. My back was in agony. It was terrible! About 15 more hours go by and now the doctor had turned off my epidural. I honestly thought I was going to die. The contractions would come in massive waves and I would hold my breath and refuse to push. My little boys heart rate was out of this world and I remember so vividly the doctor grabbing my face and saying, “Young Lady, if you don’t push this baby is gonna die – now push.”

During the moments of intense pain I literally clammed up, held my breath, and waited for it to end. However, in reality what I was doing was prohibiting the pain to do its job and help me push.

I think we as believers do this during times when God is trying to do a new work in us. The pain is intense and we stop pushing! We hide, we seal ourselves off from everyone else, and we fail to breathe and push! Holding it in, avoiding the pain, crossing our arms and refusing to work through it does nothing but prevent the miracle from coming to life.

Today is my son’s birthday; he’s 18 years old. I am so glad that doctor looked at me firmly and said lady you better – do your job and push!

Perhaps you are in a place of pain and you simply want to stop, hide, and quit. Let me encourage you to do the opposite of what the pain is telling you.   Take a deep breath and push through it. Address the hard stuff head on. Buckle down, grit your teeth, dig your nails into something and PUSH so that baby don’t die! ! You may not feel ready, the pain may have caught you by surprise – but I can guarantee you have a loving Father who will walk you through it. He just needs you to do your part and push!