[Faith-talk] Good Night Message for Saturday, February 23, 2013 and a Personal Prayer Request

[Paul]

Hello and good morning, afternoon or evening wherever in this world you happen to live.  Here in the Americas it's still evening.  Don't know if there is anyone from either Iceland or the Azores on any of these lists, but if my memory serves me correctly, as this is being written, you'll be turning the corner onto your Lord's Day in about 48 minutes from now.  Anyway I hope that your day is going well or went well.

This article was written in September 1991, so its author by now might have gone home to be with his Lord.  Anyway, for any of you living in North Carolina where the author of this article lived, did you know him? His name is/was Pastor David G. Gerken and his contribution is entitled "My Grace Is Sufficient," rendered as follows:

My first year out of seminary, 1969, was like a honeymoon.  I was happily ensconced at Redeemer Lutheran Church, Catawba, N.C., and my wife, Sandy, was expecting our first child.  When Denetia Dawn was born, we truly believed we couldn't possibly be any happier.

Denetia, though, while still a newborn, developed a blockage in her intestine.  She underwent 10 touch-and-go surgeries before her short and painful life came to an end.  Our only consolation was that she wouldn't have to suffer anymore.

The following year, we were blessed with our second child, Michael David.  We were just beginning to trust and enjoy life again, when I began to experience agonizing back pain.  (While at the seminary, I had been diagnosed as having a back ailment called spondylolisthesis, but was never made aware of how bad it could get).

Our happy family began a slow and steady descent into a living hell.  I was referred to an orthopedic doctor in Winston-Salem, but he couldn't find the cause of the problem.  Finally, after four months of intense pain, I underwent a CAT scan, which revealed a broken back.  That first surgery was extremely painful, but the doctor assured me that it was successful 95% of the time.

The next summer, while I was playing softball, something snapped in my back.  The pain came back tenfold, but when I returned to the doctor who had done the surgery, he refused to believe that it had broken again.  I was put in traction for a month, then in a body cast for four more months, but there was no improvement.  Finally, my doctor said my problem might be scar tissue compressing the nerves.  He did another surgery (learning only then that the back was indeed broken), which proved successful, but the damage had already been done.

In spite of my back problems, there was still joy in our lives.  In 1974, the Lord blessed us with a healthy daughter, Aletia Joy.  But even this happy occasion was short-lived, for I was admitted to the hospital for more back surgery only a few days after my wife brought the baby home.  Actually, I underwent seven surgeries, my neurosurgeon assuring me each time that "this will do it."

Of all the surgeries, the rhizotomy (the cutting of the spinal nerve roots) was the most painful, for I had to stay awake while they probed my back for the right batches of nerves to cut.  I was in intractable pain for three days after the operation.  Family and friends prayed over me daily, and the Lord heard.  The pain lessened enough so that I could at least function to some degree.

By this time, I had resigned from my church and gone on disability.  I started going to a number of pain clinics, where I tried everything from acupuncture to cobra-venom injections, none of which helped.

Within two years after my back surgeries, I learned that I had cardiomyopathy (congestive heart failure), which usually proves fatal.  But through prayers and medicine, I survived.  One day, a cardiologist at Duke University brought some interns to see me so they could hear what congestive heart failure sounds like.  Listening, though, he couldn't hear anything.  "What did you do, David?" he asked, "perform a miracle on yourself?" "No, I replied, "not me.  But maybe the Lord did."

Diabetes struck next.  Then a series of eight foot surgeries.  Unfortunately, my foot wouldn't heal, so the doctors decided to amputate it.  When I balked at this idea, they gave me a special brace designed to save the foot.  I wear the brace to this day, though the foot is still in jeopardy..

Most recently, I've been diagnosed as having congenital kidney failure.  The doctors say my kidneys will have completely shut down by this time next year.  I can't have a kidney transplant because my heart is too weak to withstand it, so I'm on dialysis.

Through all this, my family has suffered with me.  God has helped, though, through the prayers and financial help of many, including those who have given to a fund established on my behalf.  And He still lets me be a witness in many ways.  I walk the halls of hospitals on my crutches, sharing God's Word with patients who wish to hear it.  I maintain an active telephone ministry from my home.  And, starting now, I hope to be a positive influence in my dialysis group.

So, as you can see, I'm still able to serve the Lord as He strengthens me and helps me move on with my life.  Through it all, I am constantly reminded of St. Paul's words in II Corinthians 12:9:  "But He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me."

My, but what a testimony that Brother David wrote.  As I was writing and reading this article, the words of the chorus of a well-known Gospel hymn/song came to me:  "Through it all, through it all, I've learned to trust in Jesus, I've learned to trust in God.  Through it all, through it all, I've learned to depend upon His Word."  I can just hear some of you singing those words.

And after all this, you probably forgot that I had a prayer request, so here goes:  If the Lord so wills, please pray that my cold will get sufficiently better that I can go to church tomorrow.  I really like my new church family, but at the same time I don't want to infect others, and I don't want them to infect me either.  I hope you see where I'm coming from.

And yet one more thing before I close.  I dedicate the main portion of this message to a very special friend, and she knows who she is.  Even though it is dedicated to her, I hope that it ministered to each one of you individually and collectively.

Amd now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, throughout this night or day and especially in these last days in which we live.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul