Letting Go and Holding On

The life we have is a pleasant gift from God. Even to most who never give God a casual thought or to the one who despises Him in every way, God has given so much, especially in this day of prosperity and ease here in this beautiful country. So I come to you today and ask that you drop right to your knees and thank God for the blessings of life. And never, ever take any single thing for granted. I say this now from a new perspective. Of course all of us at times remember how good life is, but I had let complacency slip in.

A few weeks ago, in a matter of moments, I found out that everything I took for granted could be lost in a moment, in a brief, bad decision. All my life I had bounced around roofs and climbed ladders and telephone poles with reckless abandon. At 52 years old I pridefully acted as if I was invincible and as if I was in control of my life.

Then I did something really stupid. My best friend knew it was stupid and told me not to do it. But I thought I knew better. I was wrong. I fell off a roof in a position that I immediately recognized as one I had no control of.

When I began to fall from that roof, I was desperately hanging on to a piece of plywood. But somewhere on the trip down, I let go, instinctively knowing that I was clinging to a useless material object. Smashing into the ground, my body was broken and beaten. Still conscious I feared for my life, at first unable to take a breath and then immediately knowing I was severely injured, I was more afraid then I had ever been.

But then finally along the painful journey to the hospital, I found the hand of Christ himself reaching out to me. Knowing the pain was unbearable for my weak physical mind and body, Jesus picked me up and carried me through the pain and kept me close to Him. My accident began with me hanging to a piece of wood, but it ended with me clinging desperately to Jesus.
Jesus carried me through each step of the hospital experience. Every fear I faced, fears that had haunted me all my life, He brought me through. Now, praise God, I am home recuperating. When people ask things like when I might return to work, I truthfully respond that I do not take more than 1 day at a time. I trust in God to provide and now I just seek patience and comfort through Him.

So how has this changed my life? Well to begin with I again became aware of how blessed I am. My hospitalization resulted in an unbelievable outpouring of prayer and of people coming to see me. I learned that not only do I have an awesome family: I have an awesome Church family.
I also learned quite a bit about pain. As soon as I hit the ground I was in intense pain. Many say that the body protects us by shutting down the pain, but in my situation God allowed me to experience intense pain and I never lost consciousness nor did I appear to be in shock. Instead I existed in a state of pain so intense I had no other option but to completely surrender it to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Now some might say God wouldn't have a hand in my suffering. To that I say read the Book of Job. You see while God wasn't the source of Job's suffering, He did allow Satan to bring it on and then God turned the tables on Satan by taking this devastation inflicted by the evil one and using it to defeat him. Romans 8:28 confirms this saying, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."
So the bottom line here is this: God has and continues to bless me through the entire experience. My life shall never be the same. I see now that being able to bench press a certain amount of weight or getting people to think you're afraid of nothing is all useless pride. Instead what matters is letting go of the silly idea that being in control of a situation is important and I have learned instead to let God be in control.

The Bible is not short of counsel in this area. 2 Corinthians 12:9 reminds of us of what Jesus advises us. It says this, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

I have experienced the power of Christ at work. My body knows of the amazing work of His healing hand . Just ask the staff at St. Anthony’s who witnessed how Jesus healed and moved me from the ICU to a regular room to home in just 9 days. Ask them why I was allowed a constant flow of visitors, against their rules that patients be allowed rest and not be bombarded with people. The answer is simple: God used the Body of Christ, through the biggest outpouring of prayer and love I and they may have ever seen, to make known the truth of His Word which says this: "...pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much."

I think of all the lessons to be taken from this event, most importantly God wants each of us to at least understand this very important lesson. The Word of God is true...all of it. Those promises He makes are not just cheerful little statements given to make us feel better. No, the promises of God are complete truths that we can trust our whole lives with. If He said it; believe it. Then when you find yourself in a situation that seems unbearable, your spouse leaves you, you lose your job, or maybe your health whether by illness or accident, you can immediately ask Jesus to carry you through it. He will not let you down.

I have to make the following plea to you before I post this. If Bible reading and prayer don't play a dominent part in your life, please change that. I don't know how I would have made it through this had I not been convinced of the truth of God's Word and known the promises Jesus had made me. And when I fell, my Christian brother and friend Bill and I both knew to pray even before He called 911. You see God is in control. Doctors, nurses, and paramedics are awesome and I appreciate each and every one of them and their work. But they are just one way God heals and comforts us. It is His power and His love that actually does the healing. To God be all the glory and all the praise.