Last Sunday I participated in a panel discussion at a local church whose pastor is a friend. What was unusual was that this was the sermon for the day. The topic: the Kingdom, demons and healing. The three of us on the panel brought complementary emphases to the topic. It was fun and interesting.

Driving home from church my cell rang. “Hi Jim, this is Mom (Kay’s mother, Grace). I wanted to let you know that Dad has had a couple of TIAs (a "warning stroke" or "mini-stroke" that produces stroke-like symptoms but no lasting damage). At the time Herb (Kay’s Dad) and Grace were at Kay’s sister’s house about an hour away from their home. They called Kay’s brother’s wife, Carol, who is an RN. She told them to get him to the hospital quickly. Herb did not want to go to the hospital so they called a friend who is an emergency room surgeon. He came over and examined Herb, and advised them to go to the hospital. But, he wanted to go home and wait until Monday morning and see his own physician first. Monday morning he was taken to the hospital and diagnosed as having suffered a stroke. Kay kept up on his condition from half a continent away. By Monday afternoon her gentle mild-mannered Dad was aggressive and combative. He was not lucid and had to be restrained. By Monday afternoon he was fairly unresponsive and a CT scan showed that this was far more than a TIA. He had four blood clots in the brain one of which caused a cerebral hemorrhage, which was approaching the area of the brain that controlled respiratory function.

At that time the family talked with the physician about a DNR (do not resuscitate) order. Herb had made a living will eleven years ago and instructed that he not be put on life support. Despite this, his physician was reluctant to go in that direction. Herb’s condition was not yet critical.

As Kay got the word that Herb had slipped out of his right mind and that the stroke involved a massive hemorrhage that was still spreading, she called me from work. “I have got to go. Please call and get me a ticket to Dallas.” I found a flight for 12:30 A.M. Tuesday and she arrived in Dallas early Tuesday morning. She went directly to the hospital. Herb’s condition had worsened. Now the physician agreed that the DNR was appropriate. Shortly after she arrived at the hospital Herb was taken for another CT scan. Kay’s description was that it was as if they took his body for the scan. He was totally unresponsive. While he was having the scan the family: Grace, Kay, David (brother) & wife Carol, Verna (sister) & husband Steve held a family meeting and all agreed on the DNR. They prayed together and once again placed Herb in God’s hands.

Shortly after he was rolled back into the room and was situated in his bed Herb opened his eyes, sat up straight in bed and “with a twinkle in his eye said ‘Hi!’” (those are Kay’s words). He didn’t know what had happened but was lucid and recognized everyone, although he could not say their names, and then said “Where’s Jim?”

On Wednesday he was up and walking with a walker as well as feeding himself. He could not remember what had happened earlier in the day, and had trouble speaking. Over the past couple of days he has continued to slowly improve, but still has a long way to go. He has an underlying atrial fibrillation that could create new blood clots that could dislodge and cause another stroke. So far the doctors have been unable to bring this under control.

Needless to say this week has been an emotional rollercoaster: the unexpected emotional shock from the stroke which then turned into sadness and hopelessness in that there was nothing we could do, and grief expecting that Kay’s father would live for only a few more hours or days. This was followed by joy in Herb’s unexpected awakening from what we expected to be terminal unresponsiveness. Now we rejoice that he is still with us, but life for him and Grace has changed forever. Will they be able to continue to live in their home? How will Grace be able to handle the added burden of caring for Herb? How much of what was lost in the stroke will he regain? etc.

On Sunday morning during our discussion of the topic of healing I observed that we who live in the post-Enlightenment western culture do not vitally believe that God heals or intervenes. We believe, because we believe the scriptures; but we look at the world technically and scientifically and see only the material. In non-western cultures we hear stories of unbelievable miracles. We (kind of) believe because we trust the veracity of those who have seen. Yet on a deep level we often do not totally embrace with our whole being the truth that God is here with us (despite the promise that He will never leave us or forsake us) and that He is ultimately in control (after all we can discern weather patterns of high and low pressures and understand the mechanism from a scientific perspective).

We as western Christians live like (by this I do not mean consciously adopt this perspective) we do not need God on a day to day basis. Our lives are predictable, in large part because of the technology we possess and the stable political situation in which we live. But the scientific and political blessings—and I am absolutely convinced that they are blessings—are a two-edged sword; they also dull our conscious dependence upon the Lord in day-to-day living. The danger we face and to which virtually all of us succumb is becoming self-satisfied like the church of Laodicea (Revelation 3), and viewing our situation through the eyes of circumstances rather than through the eyes of faith much as did Elisha’s servant (2 Kings 6).

I hate uncertainty in life. Not that I want total predictability—that would be boring. But I prefer living life with an underlying security and predictability, a Disneyland existence where I can experience the thrill but not the danger. In short, I am a typical western Christian. It is in times like Kay & I are living through now that push me (us) out of our area of safety and predictability and into a place of being forced to trust—trust day by day in the Lord’s work in the lives of our loved ones and our own.