“The Doctors Did Not Know My God”
“If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king.”
Christopher writes:
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had it right on how to pray to God. They knew God was quite capable of deliverance, yet God’s will is sovereign. Therefore they didn’t anticipate the outcome, but trusted God’s will is good.
In June of 2007, I left for work after a long weekend of sleep. I was too embarrassed to seek medical help thinking I had a severe case of gingivitis. My legs were bruised, yet I did not feel bad. On the way to work, I spun out in a median two times. It just seemed like a clumsy action, and I thought little of it. I arrived at work and my boss looked at me and said, you’re too sick to be here, go home.
I went home unsure if I’d been fired or if my boss really saw something. I called my wife and she rushed home to take me to the doctor. The doctor ran blood tests and confirmed his suspicions. I have Acute Myeloid Leukemia. The doctor made arrangements with the Markey Cancer Center and I was rushed there by ambulance. Apparently I’d lost 2/3rds of my blood, had suffered several strokes which caused a subdural hematoma (bleeding in the brain). Immediate brain surgery was needed, yet my blood was in such poor condition the surgery was a tremendous risk. Doctors placed my survival below 1% and questioned whether surgery was even justified. The doctors told my family to say their final goodbyes, that I most likely would not survive.
In just a few short hours I went from thinking I had gingivitus to what appeared to be the grave. I had maybe 20 minutes alone with my wife, and to be quite honest, I’d already decided I was dead. I asked her to pray with me that ‘God’s will be done’ through this. That God could deliver me if He so choosed, yet if He did not, it changed nothing.
There is so much to tell and so little space to tell it. I underwent the brain surgery, chemotherapy, treatment for blood infections, and any number of things that in themselves could have killed me. It was God’s will that I survived. I am now 1 complete year in remission. The prognosis is good. Life in the furnace was not so bad. I am a better person and my faith is ever so more increased. The doctors counted me dead, they did not know my God.
Please note that the views expressed in this story are not necessarily the views of the American Bible Society. Story posted on October 26th, 2008 and filed under Illness, God's Love, Hope, Praise, Your Stories, Struggles, Verses, God's Sovereignty.
October 26th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Dear Christopher:
“It was God’s will that I survived.”
Hallelujah, Amen!
What a moving testimony of your and your Beautiful Wife’s prayer: ‘God’s will be done’
I believe that you have helped change my life–which does not happen so easily with stubborn me.
My Living Will states clearly that, if my personal physician decides at a point in time when my physical condition is incurable, and with a second doctor’s same opinion, they must “pull the plug,” and release me to my “Eternal Home.”
This is not because I lack faith in Almighty God, but because, e.g., “Your sun will no longer set,
Nor will your moon wane;
For you will have the LORD for an everlasting light,
And the days of your mourning will be over” (Isaiah 60:20).
In my mind, the last thing I want to happen is to prolong the burden and agony of my 10 children and 15 grandchildren here on earth.
Your message has awakened in me literally the true Faith: “Thy Will be done,” not the mecial doctors’; and sing the Psalm of Fearless Trust in God:
“The LORD is my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the defense of my life;
Whom shall I dread?” (Psalm 27:1).
Thank you.
May GOD ALL MIGHTY Bless you and your Most Precious Other Half inestimably and
infinitely;
GODSPEED, always and forevermore!
Mary Sun.
November 16th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
Dear Brother in christ,
The testimony of Lord Christ in your life encouraged me a lot as My Father is going through the similar situations.As per the Doctor,He has to undergo 6 chemos & 5 years medication after that.He already was operated for he had a lump under his one arm.& also the plastic surgery followed by that.
I would like to know… more about it,Did u went thrgh all the chemo settings doctors suggested ?Are u still under medication?Do we need to continue the medication.. after that.?
As I would like know the medical things as well as about HIS faith worked in u…
God Bless You & Your wife & children.
You be blessed with full measure of His faith as u chose to exercise it.