WHOOPEE PRAISES

I have never heard that “Whoopee” would be acceptable praises to God, not until I found myself doing that very thing, shouting praises to God by shouting “Whoopee.” You need to know the background and the setting behind that unusual exclamation of praise, so here goes: Ten days ago I had had my yearly mammogram performed in the hospital of a close town in which my primary care doctor has his office. His office scheduled the appointment and I was pleased to undergo the exam since I am a 24 year survivor of breast cancer and for the last ten years I have finally been able to relax when undergoing the mammogram exam. I felt that I have overcome that disease for this long and there surely won’t be a reoccurrence now. A few days later I got the call from my doctor’s office telling me that the mammogram showed some “suspicious” tissue and that I needed to have another series of exams. I took the news with trepidation, having expected to receive the call stating that everything was clear on the mammogram results. I started praying diligently and asked my good friends whom we affectionately call the Prayer Posse to also pray for me. Included in that Prayer Posse are several members of my family. The appointment for the second mammogram was scheduled for ten days later. It is done in a busy hospital with excellent technicians who are gentle, kind and loving. I spent lots and lots of hours praying in the Holy Spirit for myself, something I rarely do for myself, but included were other people in the hours and hours of prayers. On the day of the second scheduled mammogram I prayed in the Holy Spirit all the way to the hospital as I drove to the town where the hospital is located, and as I got closer to the hospital I had a sense that God had erased the “suspicious” tissue from my breast. That was only a fleeting thought, not a strong impression. I thanked God for His ability to do that and told Him that I believed He had truly done a miracle for me. I arrived on time for the appointment and was called into the exam room just a few minutes after the schedule said. When I entered the exam room, I noticed a scripture painted on the wall which said, “With God all things are possible to those who believe. Mark 9:23.” That was comforting and I reflected on the fact that I had not seen that statement on that wall at the past appointments. Also there was a hanging cloth plaque with the silk screen messages Hope and Believe printed many times on the cloth. That boosted my faith, too. The technician is always so kind and gentle and makes the mammogram as pleasant as possible. She immediately told me that the radiologist had requested more tests with extra compression so that she could compare the new slides with the ones taken ten days previously. Being use to the procedures, I relaxed and put my arms where she told me, and twisted my body into unusual contortions so that she could get the proper views on the mammogram. After mammograms were taken in three different positions, she said that she was taking them to the radiologist so she could compare them to the previous ones from ten days previously. Then she said that if there was nothing of concern on the mammograms that I would be free to leave and go home. BUT, she said, if there was still something of concern that she would return and take me to the ultrasound room for extra testing. I was a little nervous to hear what the radiologist was viewing, of course. In about five minutes, the tech returned and said that the radiologist wanted a complete ultrasound of the suspicious area. Not good news! However, I went willingly to the ultrasound exam room and met the young tech in charge who would do the ultrasound, a beautiful and gentle lady. She used the ultrasound wand gently but took a long, long time, all the while with the machine making beeping sounds. After about 15 minutes of recording the ultrasound, the tech told me she was going to take the results to the radiologist and they would discuss the findings. I laid on the table with my faith beginning to slip a little. I knew that God would see that I got healed, but I didn’t relish going through medical methods of healing, those being radiation and chemotherapy. After an agonizing few minutes the tech returned with the radiologist and announced that the radiologist wanted to be present while she did a completely new series of ultrasound tests. Again, not good news! The radiologist was a pretty young lady who was just as kind as the other ladies in the radiology department. She thought she recognized me and I assured her that I didn’t know her. She told the ultrasound tech to begin the testing while she watched the screen. By then my blood pressure was beginning to rise a little bit, imagining that there were diseased areas that they were trying to identify more completely. After the extensive ultrasound exam was completed, the radiologist announced to me that the areas of concern that were found ten days ago were not now visible on the current mammograms. She said she had ordered the ultrasound testing to make sure the new mammograms weren’t missing what they had seen on the previous ones. Then she told me that the areas of concern were now neither visible on the current mammograms nor on the ultrasound exams. The thought came to me that, for sure, God had miraculously erased the areas of concern from my breast, healing me, just like the thought came to me in the car. I almost skipped out of the radiology department after redressing, feeling light as a feather as I glided across the huge parking lot to my car, thanking God all the way for what He had done for me. It was worth all of the hour and a half of tests and anxious thoughts to hear the great news from the radiologist. When I got to my car for the 45 minute to an hour drive back home, I wanted to praise God again but when I started to open my mouth with normal words of praise I started shouting a strange thing. I started shouting the word, “Whoopee,” very loudly amidst the flood of tears of gratitude. I kept shouting, “Whoopee,” loudly every few seconds as if I had won a huge sporting event or received a valuable gift, which I actually had done. I felt like an idiot, thinking maybe that I should be praising God in the usual way with words of thanksgiving, but I found that there was such great joy in shouting, “Whoopee,” with the emphasis on the “whoop.” That continued all the way home. I had the thought that even though that wasn’t an exclamation that I had ever shouted, that it was an exclamation that my husband would have used. He had died two years previously of cancer. Early in our marriage I had occasionally heard him use that word in joyful situations. Then the thought came to me that my loving husband was, in fact, participating with me in my joy, adding his multiple shouts of, “Whoopee,” to my praises to God. Why not? I know that he is in the cloud of witnesses in the heavenly dimension around us. I also know that he would be shouting words of exclamation with me if he were still in the flesh by rejoicing right along with me. Even greater joy came to me with that revelation. Shouts from my mouth of, “Whoopee,’ filled my car all the way home and into the evening. The next morning I woke with thoughts of doubt that God had actually erased from my breast the areas that were suspicious and of great concern to the radiologist. I rejected that thought, knowing that the enemy of God’s children always comes to rob God of praise. Later that day as I was typing a love message from God for my blog, one that I had handwritten seven days before the current event, I was amazed when I saw that the first sentence said, “All things are possible with God to those who believe, Mark 9:23.” It was the identical scripture that was painted on the wall of the mammogram exam room. “Whoopee,” was again my exclamation, that God had confirmed His work by having the identical scripture at the beginning of my writing that day as was on the wall of the exam room the day before. That is no coincidence. It’s what we call a God incident. A loving friend called and told me to read in the dictionary the meaning of the word. I did and it becomes even more exciting. The word “whoopee” means to express a shout of great exuberance. To “whoop it up” means to celebrate riotously and as an expression of enjoyment and enthusiam. I whooped it up all the way home that day after hearing the good news. It had to be with the same degree of gratitude that the Psalmist David intended when he wrote that we must shout for joy, praising God for His goodness. “Whoopee,” just seems to express my gratitude now. Try it, with the emphasis on the “whoop” as you shout. It will express joy but will also bring more joy to you. I know that God loves it because of what it does for us, bringing joy and exhilaration to us. So I’m expecting to celebrate and shout, “Whoopee,” more often Try it. You’ll be surprised what it does for you. Whoopee, another battle has been won.