Miracles

Posted by Chris Antolin
Leadership Team

So I've been listening to this song called "What Faith can do" by Kutless. It's a great song! I actually heard it while working (or leading) a Christian awakening retreat this past Oct. This song constantly strikes me. More notably, it reminds me of It all goes back to when I was a Senior back at Roncalli High School. It was in May, just a few weeks before Graduation. My parents and my sister were off at one of her gymnastics meets (she got a gold in vault! I was proud of her!) and I found myself alone at home. I decided to go and eat lunch out by myself. Most of my friends had spring sports and jobs that took up a lot of their time. As I was eating alone, this man confronted me and asked me if I was a priest. Me, being kinda shocked by the question, said that I was a little too young to be one. I asked him why he thought I was a priest. He told me, "I have never seen a kid wear a cross (refering to my retreat cross) and value it so much that he does not want to ever forget it".  I told him how great of an experience I had and how I think of my faith as something that will always stay in my life. The gentleman and I had a conversation about faith for the next half hour. I will remember this conversation for time to come. I remember how he considered it a miracle that I wore the cross. He told me how he sees kids now and how they don't tend to live up to their faith. He never thought that he would see a kid, yet a guy, show his faith off so proudly. I found his comment true, but I never thought the word "miracle" would seem fit for this. I asked him why he used the word "miracle". He then went to ask me a question I will never forget. He asked me "Do I believe in miracles?". Now me, having a different definition of a miracle (a supernatural one), said no. He told me that I should, because they are always happening throughout the world.

 I thought about what he had told me at that point. I still didn't know whether or not they exist. I, later, changed my opinion.

 Many of you probably had no idea, but for the past 18 years, I struggled to be able to hear like a normal person. I was born with a 95% hearing loss. My hearing was compared to someone talking to someone else and that someone else is under water. My parents said that they would yell my name while I was near them and I could not hear them. My parents hated it, and I had no idea what was going on. They made a decision: I had my first surgery on my ears in first grade. It was either that or a hearing aid. There was one problem that occurred as time went on. My hearing got better, but there were "issues" that came with the surgery. I was one of the kids with a rare case in which the holes in the eardrums did not close after surgery. Seems like this was not problem? It was the worst problem. This smallest drop of water into either of my ears would give me a serious infection for a week sometimes. I went through this and 2 more surgeries as my life continued on.  This July of 2012, I had an opportunity to try and have this problem fixed for good. Another surgery, except this time it was to patch the holes created in my eardrums.

The surgery day came, and my surgery went well. The surgeon told my family and I something that shocked me. My eardrum had hardened into a bone-like eardrum (they are suppose to be soft for sound to bounce off of it). The surgeon said that I was another kid with an extremely rare case. So I was already a kid with an extremely rare issue with my ears. The surgery went from being a simple patch job into a complete removal and reconstruction of an eardrum.


 Now going back to the song I mentioned earlier, there is a part of the song where the lyrics go like this:

I've seen miracles just happen

Silent prayers get answered

 My surgeon told me that the condition of my "Petrified" eardrums was the most interesting scenario. For the past 4-5 years, my eardrums were like this, petrified and rock hard. He told us all that my eardrums were NOT suppose to be working (In other words, I was suppose to be deaf for the past 4-5 years). Today that remains a mystery. My surgeon has no idea on how I could hear or even hear as well as I did.

 To me, this is that "miracle" that the gentleman was talking about. I knew at that time, that miracles DO exist. Think of it like Love; there are so many definitions of what it is or can be, but it happens all over the world that we know so well. I believe that God had blessed me with this miracle and I am extremely grateful to have had such an experience.

 So, to those reading this, take the man's advice that he gave me. Believe in miracles. They happen all over the world and they may even happen to you one day! Never lose HOPE and never lose faith in what God has in store for you!