--- id: 20170201_unexpected_blessings title: BLOG - Unexpected Blessings category: Biblical Life Counsel predicted_narrative_arc: crisis-to-providence-recognition sentiment: Hopeful emotions: - Grateful - Reflective - Trusting keypoints: - Cancer diagnoses that seemed accidental were later seen as God's timing - A cancelled charter flight led Dean to a doctor who found late-stage prostate cancer - What felt like a problem was God's path to the cure - Ephesians 1:11 frames predestination and God's purposeful plan - Stressful circumstances can be evidence that God is already taking care of you summary: > Dean Rush recounts how cancelled flights and "accidental" medical discoveries revealed God's providence in his cancer diagnoses. Citing Ephesians 1:11, he urges readers not to forget that God is often caring for them when circumstances look stressful, and promises further evidence in a later post. tags: - blog - policy - cancer - providence - flying-free - ephesians-1 - trust-in-god - crisis - dean-rush - unexpected-blessings sycophancy: 0 truth_score: 8 entropy: 3 sample: false consent: owner_approved agent: blog created: '2017-02-01' updated: '2026-09-09T00:00:00Z' vault_stage: 07_CODEX headwaters: BLOG prefix: BLOG enrich_status: ok enrich_blockers: [] enrich_method: manual pipeline_filename: BLOG_2017-02-01_unexpected-blessings.md source_kind: blog_article proposed_topic: Wisdom lane: Wisdom voice: desk active_voice: desk voices: - desk routing_source: carbon corpus_topic: Wisdom content_status: active date: '2017-02-01' share_url: https://deanrush.net/blog/unexpected-blessings source_url: https://deanrush.net/blog/unexpected-blessings site_category: Policy archive_month: 2017-02 description: > Dean traces cancer discoveries that looked like accidents back to God's timing, citing Ephesians 1:11 — God works everything according to His purpose — as the frame for unexpected blessings in crisis. --- # Unexpected Blessings **Author:** Dean Rush **Original post:** [deanrush.net/blog/unexpected-blessings](https://deanrush.net/blog/unexpected-blessings) **Archive month:** February 2017 · **Site category:** Policy > Voice note: Everything under **Dean's article** is Dean's original prose (lightly cleaned of HTML/image artifacts only). Sections marked **Biblical foundations**, **Scholar sidebar**, **Takeaways**, and **First-time learner** are enrichment for Asker / first readers — not Dean speaking. --- ## Biblical foundations (preface) Dean names a personal wound — cancer found through disrupted plans — and answers it with Scripture he already quotes: God works everything according to the purpose of His will (Ephesians 1:11). The enrichment below does not replace his testimony; it shows the wider biblical frame that makes his counsel coherent for someone opening a Bible for the first time. | Dean's claim | Scriptural undercarriage | | --- | --- | | What looks like accident can be providence | Joseph: "you meant evil… God meant it for good" (Genesis 50:20); God works for good for those who love Him (Romans 8:28) | | God has plans beyond our schedule | "My thoughts are not your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8–9); a man's heart plans his way, the Lord establishes his steps (Proverbs 16:9) | | Believers are chosen according to His purpose | Predestined according to His plan (Ephesians 1:11); created for good works prepared beforehand (Ephesians 2:10) | | Stressful circumstance may still be care | Do not be anxious; present requests to God (Philippians 4:6–7); cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares (1 Peter 5:7) | --- ## Dean's article ### Flying Free — Life After Crisis ![Autumn image from Dean's original post](https://deanrush.net/Portals/0/images/article/autumn-219972_640.jpg) If you have read my book, ***Flying Free-life After Crisis***, you are aware that I have had a couple of experiences with cancer Although unwelcome, the disease has bee found by "accident" that I now realize was not by chance but by God. The first diagnosis was detected by my family physician in Lockhart, Texas. I owned a small aviation business that included some charter services. On a very inconvenient day for schedule changes a pilot called me and said he was unable to fly that afternoon. I was feeling lethargic and losing weight so I went to see my doctor. He looked me over and announced I "was not flying that afternoon" He asked what diet I was on and I told him I was not on a diet. He immediately referred me to a doctor in Austin. The doctor there was a customer at my aviation business where he owned an airplane. ( I thought he was a veterinarian!).I arrived at the doctor's office and was surprised to find he was a medical doctor and not a veterinarian but, in this case was pleased that I was wrong about his credentials. He laughed when I confessed my mistake but examined me to see what the problem was with my weight and energy level. He performed a series of tests and determined I had a high stage of prostate cancer. Not getting to fly was upsetting to me but now I realized God had much more important plans for me. > **Scholar sidebar — Interrupted plans as mercy** > Scripture often relocates "inconvenient" delays inside providence. Proverbs 16:9 says the heart plans its way, but the Lord establishes the steps. Paul's thorn and his redirected travel (2 Corinthians 12:7–9; Acts 16:6–10) show that closed doors can be protection or redirection, not mere frustration. Dean's cancelled charter is personal narrative, not a formula that every illness is a blessing; it is testimony that God can use disruption to uncover what a smooth schedule would have hidden. The pastoral point matches James 4:13–15: we ought to say, "If the Lord wills," because life is not ours to schedule alone. ### God's Plan Works The Best What I considered a problem was just God's way of leading me to the cure for my problem. I have now experienced other evidences that He is in charge and we need to pay attention to His will and not ours. Ephesians 1:11 explains: **"In Him we were so chosen,, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His well. " (NIV)** I will relay some additional evidence in my next blog. The bottom line is do not forget that God is often taking care of you when your circumstance looks seems stressful. > **Scholar sidebar — Ephesians 1:11 in context** > Dean cites Ephesians 1:11 (NIV wording he quotes includes typographical slips in the live post — "well" for "will"). In context, verses 3–14 are a single blessing-hymn: chosen in Christ, adopted, redeemed, sealed by the Spirit. "Works out everything" is not fatalism that erases human responsibility; it is confidence that history and hardship sit under a purposeful God. Romans 8:28–29 pairs the same conviction with conformity to Christ's image. Dean's application — pay attention to His will, not ours — matches the chapter's Christ-centered center: providence is personal, not impersonal luck. --- ## Takeaways 1. **"Accident" may be appointment.** Dean reframes cancer discoveries that looked random as God's timing, not chance. 2. **Disrupted schedules can save lives.** A pilot's cancellation and a doctor's insistence kept him from flying and put him in care. 3. **Problems can be pathways.** What he considered a problem became the route to diagnosis and cure. 4. **Ephesians 1:11 anchors the claim.** God works everything according to the purpose of His will — Dean's doctrinal center for the story. 5. **Stress does not equal abandonment.** The bottom line is pastoral: God may already be caring for you when circumstance looks hardest. --- ## First-time learner ### What is Dean saying in one sentence? Do not assume stressful interruptions are meaningless; God may be steering you toward help you would have missed on your own schedule. ### Why does he quote Ephesians 1:11? Because the verse locates believers inside God's purposeful plan — chosen and predestined according to Him who works everything in conformity with His will — which is exactly the frame Dean needs for cancer found through cancelled plans. ### Key verses to read with this post - **Ephesians 1:11** — Predestined according to His plan; He works everything to His purpose. - **Romans 8:28** — God works for good for those who love Him. - **Proverbs 16:9** — We plan; the Lord establishes steps. - **Genesis 50:20** — Intended harm overturned for good. - **James 4:13–15** — "If the Lord wills" as the believer's calendar. - **Philippians 4:6–7** — Anxiety met with prayer and peace. - **1 Peter 5:7** — Cast anxiety on Him because He cares. ### A simple practice (Dean's counsel made concrete) When a plan collapses this week: (1) refuse the reflex that God is absent, (2) pray Ephesians 1:11 aloud, (3) ask one practical question — "What care or truth might this interruption be forcing me to face?" — before you resent the delay. ### How this feeds Ask Dean This post is seed material for questions such as: *How does Dean talk about cancer and God's will? What does Ephesians 1:11 mean in crisis? Can stressful circumstances still be care?* Answers should keep Dean's testimony primary and use the scholar notes only as supporting biblical scaffolding.