All to Jesus I surrender, all to Him I freely give.

I will ever love and trust Him, in His presence daily live.

All to Jesus I surrender, humbly at His feet I bow.
Worldly pleasures all forsaken. Take me, Jesus, take me now.

I surrender all. I surrender all.
All to Thee, my blessed Savior.
I surrender all.

This song had been playing around and around in my mind, and at the same time life was still doling out its challenges: work--administration and shift changes; life--being there for my 87-year-old mother who lives with us. Now my body decided to get in on the action.

Besides dealing with MS, I now had a growth on my back and a wart on my toe. Though insignificant, they were still a thorn in the side, as the Apostle Paul put it. And if that wasn't enough, I fell down the front porch steps while chatting with our second youngest daughter on the phone. She's one of our six children. My husband, Robert, jokingly exhorted me, "Don't walk and talk."

I'm a caregiver and the worst part of all this was that for awhile I couldn't even take care of myself. This was the first time I had to depend so heavily on my husband for his care. As I wondered why so much was going wrong, he asked his famous question. "What can you learn from this?" I didn't have an answer.

Two days later while in the city to pick up our youngest son, I decided to get something to eat. Seated on an electric cart, I made my way into a fast food restaurant located in a big chain store and placed my order. As I waited, a stranger came up and asked what had happened to my foot. When I explained my accident, her face contorted with fear.

She quickly apologized for looking so upset. Her daughter's friend had fallen down a couple of stairs and died of a broken neck. He was only in his early 30's. She told me that she now had a phobia about stairs. At that moment, it came to me that we are all a part of God's healing ministry.

Seeing as we were still waiting for our orders, I shared about being ready when the Lord wants to take me home. Then I told her of a young friend who had passed on but had accepted Christ as his Savior.

I used the scripture where the Apostle Paul spoke of wanting to be home with the Lord--For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain (Philippians 1:21)--but that if he must, he would stay on this planet for our Father's Glory.

We never know how God will touch the hearts of strangers who wander into our lives. But we do know that His Word is powerful and can defeat any fear, if they will surrender all to Him.