A very special day!

Yesterday was July 15^th, 2007.  For most of you that was just another day I suppose, like July 14^th, 2007 was for me.  For others it was probably special for some reason.  For Becky Collins (church pianist) it was her birthday (I will not risk life or limb by identifying which one).  For Dave and Laura Horning (daughter and son-in-law) it was their 12^th wedding anniversary.  It was also a special day for me.  It was the 5^th anniversary of one of the best days of my life.  On July 15^th 2002 I suffered a massive stroke (a three inch bleed in the left side of my brain).  The doctors did not expect me to survive, and when I did not die right away they expected me to be institutionalized for the rest of my life.  After months of hospitals, therapy, learning how to talk, walk, dress myself, and eat (I really got good at that by the way – two months of eating through a tube in your stomach is a great motivator), I was as normal as I had ever been (note the qualification), and began preaching again. 

So why did I say it was one of the best days of my life?  Obviously there were ups and downs following my stroke, and for that matter there are still today, but one thing has changed forever.  When I stop and think about it, I know without any possible doubt that God is in charge of everything.  The doctors did a great job, but they did not expect it to be enough.  When I walked into the doctor’s office some months later for the first time, my doctor kept introducing me to other patients and nurses in the office as their miracle patient!  It was not because I am a fighter who just wouldn’t give up and die.  Nor was it because I was so spiritual and trusting the Lord.  I remember almost nothing of those first two weeks during which time I spent 10 days on a ventilator.  What time I do remember was spent in fear and trembling that I would die.  Yes, I prayed, but it was not the prayer of a confident Christian.  Just a man afraid to die.  I do know that during those early days and weeks there were those around me, especially my wife and children and church family who were much more confident in the Lord than I was regarding what was to come.  They prayed fervently for me.  I have done that kind of praying for others as have many of you, and sometimes it is God’s will, and yet there are other times that in spite of our prayers, God has other plans. 

I have considered over the years since that event what really happened, and my conclusion is simply this.  God has a plan and it happens to include my being on the earth for a little while longer.    Why?  I do not know.  It is not because I am significant to the world.  I am not.  But it is still God’s plan.  Nothing else can account for my existence.  So I can only assume that I am here to do what I do to the glory of God.  That includes being a Christlike husband, father, grandfather, pastor, friend, and most of all, an example of God’s grace.  I should not be here, but by God’s grace I am.

And I love being your pastor, Russ