Faith When All Seems Lost

Tammy Faye Messner was recently interviewed by Larry King of CNN. What caught my attention most is knowing that as her life is reaching its end, her faith remains strong.

I do not know what it feels like to have cancer's deathly grip pull the life from my body as it is doing to Tammy Faye. I don't know how she feels, or what she is going through. It was apparent, watching the interview, that Tammy Faye is struggling, and that it would be easy for her to feel like all is lost.

Her faith, I believe, reminds her that all is not lost. The threat of a losing life, to her, it seems, is an opportunity to share the love she keeps through God.

I may not understand what it feels like to be in her situation, but I do know what it feels like to feel frightened about losing my life, and close to the end.

In 1985 I suffered a left temporal fracture (broken left temple in my skull) that resulted in me being locked up in a deep comatose state for a week and a half. Then, after I opened my eyes, though I responded to basic stimuli, I failed to be cognizant. I was hospitalized for three months, it took two years to full recover, and I suffered from a seizure disorder that finally abated eight years later. In the beginning I was having up to 80 trauma induced seizures per day.

When I suffered the injury to my head, as well as a number of other injuries, my marriage was just under a year old and my son was a newborn infant. The following two years of pure medical Hell nearly tore my marriage apart, frustrating my wife and I as I went through various programs to teach me how to walk again, among other things, and function as an able adult.

Now my wife and I approach our twenty-third anniversary, and through the storms that branched out from that horrible tragedy we experienced in 1985, we have grown strong and united.

When folks hear my story they say to me, "Wow, you were lucky."

"No," I say, "I was not lucky. God is not finished with me yet."

Tammy Faye reminds me of that kind of faith. Even as her life nears its end, and she struggles to communicate with Larry King, her undying faith and love shines through.

continued from Ox. . .After Dark.