40 plus years later

After a month away from blogging, it feels good to finally be back.  I didn’t necessarily intend to be away that long, but things happen.  I have a lot I want to write about, but for today, I celebrate a milestone.  I missed blogging about it on the actual day, but April 24th is an important date in my history.  Let me briefly share the story.

When I was less than a year old, I developed a terrible disease called infantile spasms.  This basically means having seizures as an infant.  For months, my parents had to deal with difficult season.  Then one day in April – April 24th – I died for three minutes.  But God intervened.  He breathed life back into me; and what’s more I didn’t have a hint of the infantile spasms!  Last year marked the 40th anniversary of living seizure-free; now it’s been 41 years.  I’ll never stop giving God all the praise, honor, and glory for this.

Since it’s May, it is fitting that I give another illustration from the TV show “The Flash”; I say this because later on this very month, this series will end after 9 years.  In an episode from season 5, a member of Team Flash was contemplating looking into the truth about her father’s mysterious disappearance, but she was reluctant.  She said perhaps she should just forget about the past.  Ralph Dibny persuaded her to go for it; he gently stated, “Some things are worth remembering.”  I get that sometimes the past can be very painful (in fact, that’s a topic I plan to bring up in the next blog, Lord willing), but there are also wonderful memories; things worth celebrating.  That’s what I do today.   

Psalm 103 says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name!  Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases” (verses 1-3).  God has healed me from diseases – and I’m so grateful.  But I’m also grateful for the truth in the previous line in the verse, it states God forgives iniquities.  Later on in the chapter, we read, “As far as the East is from the West, so far has He removed our transgressions from us” (verse 12).  He did this in the person and work of Jesus Christ, God in human flesh, who died a criminal’s death on a cross to atone for my sin – and yours. 

In conclusion, perhaps what best sums up what I’m feeling can be captured from the song “I thank God” by Maverick City Music.  “Wandering into the night, wanting a place to hide… And just when I ran out of road, I met a man I didn’t know, and he told me I was not alone.  He picked me up; He turned me around.  He placed my feet on solid ground.  I thank the Master; I thank Savior; I thank God.  Because He healed my heart; He changed my name, forever free, I’m not the same.  I thank the Master; I thank the Savior; I thank God.”  

Kevin