As I looked at myself in the mirror, I realized I wouldn’t be going to work. We ran a restaurant and in my role as cashier and server, I couldn’t go in with my face looking like this. A red welt with seeping pus covered my left side, and it felt like it was on fire. Pretty, right? I made my way to the doctor who took one look at me and gasped. She diagnosed me with shingles along with an active staph infection.

In the months that followed, even as my infection cleared, my fatigue worsened, leaving me doing little more than holding down the couch. Then I developed a tremor. Multiple specialists tried to determine the cause, but there were no answers. Meanwhile, Ron covered the demands of the restaurant while balancing home and school events for the kids.

Months into my undiagnosed tremor, after a spinal tap, I needed to lie flat for several hours after the procedure. Ron called from the store. His frustration and fatigue came through in his voice. One of the employees had called off and now they were short-handed. He knew I couldn’t help. He just needed to vent. After the call, as I continued to lay on the couch, I felt angry and disappointed I couldn’t be where I needed to be. In full transparency, I was angry at God too. How could I be stuck here when Ron needed me elsewhere?

Wallowing in my own self-pity, I received another call. Dear friends asked if they could stop over for a visit. Well, I wasn’t going anywhere so, why not? When they arrived, they shared a crisis going on in their lives. We talked for over an hour and then we prayed. When they left, they seemed more at peace as they thanked me for being there for them.

In the quiet of my home, still planted flat on my back on the couch, I apologized to God, recognizing I was exactly where He needed and wanted me to be. The restaurant survived another day without me, but I’m not so sure my friends would have made it without a reminder of God’s goodness, and His power to overcome life’s obstacles. It was a lesson I needed to learn that day as well.

God placed me exactly where I needed to be. Had I not been confined to my couch; I’d have rushed off to work to cover that shift and missed God’s important assignment. He reminded me that no matter where we are, He can use us in the circumstances of the day, if only we take our eyes off ourselves and look to His purpose and plan.

In the Message translation, 2 Timothy 2:20-21 reads: “In a well-furnished kitchen there are some containers used to serve fine meals, others to take out the garbage. Become the kind of container God can use to present any and every kind of gift to his guests for their blessing.”

What a blessing to be used in the manner He deems necessary.