Before my Miracle, I would not have risked this hike with my family. It would have been too dangerous. If I had a seizure out here, it would have been difficult to bring me back to safety.
Going to Utah to celebrate our 25th anniversary was the highlight of our lives and I’ll never forget the blessing of being alive again!
A Guest Post by David Rice
Six years ago this month, perhaps to the day, I nearly died from lack of care by medical professionals who missed that I was dying of a pulmonary embolism. On the 23rd of November, 2017, I was struggling to breathe, and my body wouldn’t heal. I think one of the blood clots, or a group of them, broke free from my lungs and made it to the back of my brain.
As they lodged there and starved my brain of oxygen, they sent my body into a crisis, which led to full-body seizures. But in a twist of fate, God’s mercy or plan, or an attack by Satan, the seizures never led to loss of consciousness. My ability to maintain awareness, diminished as it was, during the seizures would bring another type of damage to my life.
I continued to work for another four years until I lost my job at Burrell. As good a teacher as I was, my seizures were flaring up and causing my clients to be traumatized by them. I was angry at God, the sovereign ruler of this world. Like a fool, I was angry at a God who could create me and then unravel me utterly. God, my savior, abandoned me to be sifted like Peter and tormented like Job.
Blame
In previous moments, I could accept some blame for what had happened to me in my life. When I lost my job, some of the blame could be mine. Sometimes, all the blame could be mine. Yet, with the pulmonary embolism and seizures, none of the blame could be mine. I had done nothing to bring them on, nor had I foreseen that the healthiest moment of my life could turn so quickly.
Yet, I still blamed myself. The Enemy filled me up with words of self-loathing. I was determined to punish myself and others. I was angry at God and took it out on myself. My anger gave the Enemy a place in my life and allowed him and his demons to torment me.
God loved me, though. He told me that I was his child and patiently called me home. He had carried me long enough through these last six years that I finally recognized His presence. And once I did, I could no longer deny Him or His work.
Resigned to Pain Forever
I’ve been receiving relief slowly from my seizures and back pain over this summer from the medical community, but I had resigned myself to always having them. After all, people died from Cancer, and people lived with Down Syndrome.
God worked through them, and he could work through me. And part of me still believed I deserved it, as if it was my fault. I saw in my future a slow decline into dementia where my mind left me.
Last night, a profound miracle occurred through God’s hands. It upset the narrative I had in my mind and heart that I deserved my suffering. As I was speaking with my Bible study, the emotions of my pain overwhelmed me.
And Then Something Happened….
READ THE REST OF DAVID’S MIRACULOUS STORY
David Rice is a prolific writer, author, and blogger at hickchristian.substack.com. He is an active member of the Springfield Writers Guild and the Ozarks Chapter of American Christian Writers.
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