In February 2012, I stood to lead prayer meeting at the church I had been pastoring for 12 years in Louisiana, and the longer I stood the sicker I became. I had to leave during prayer and have one of our associates take over. That was the first evidence that something was wrong with me physically, and it would just grow worse from there. We cut back my preaching to Sunday morning only, and I went to the doctor to try to discover what the problem was. But soon I could no longer preach on Sunday morning without hanging on to the pulpit, and barely being able to make it through the service. I was granted a medical leave until they could come up with a diagnosis. After some months of testing, it was discovered that I had a little-known but increasingly popular diagnosis called POTS: “Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome.” With POTS, one’s heart rate rises whenever they stand, as if they were running in place. It causes severe fatigue, sleeplessness, nausea, migraine headaches, and more. There is no known “cure” for it; they merely treat symptoms with whatever medication works best on the individual. But after months of different medications and exercises, it became increasingly evident that I was not going to become well soon. With several vacant staff positions at our church, I felt like the church needed to call a healthy pastor, and that I should resign. I was losing my ministry, my career, my job. As a result we had to sell our home, my wife’s dream house, along with about 2/3 of our possessions. I was so sick I couldn’t even stand to pack our belongings, and after I had pastored for 27 years I would be out of the ministry. We moved to Norman, Oklahoma, where we had a small apartment, to convalesce without much human hope for a healthy future.
During that time, God’s word has been an anchor for my soul. I have heard it said that there is a Psalm in the Bible for every conceivable human emotion; one which will speak to you in whatever it is you are going through. I have always believed that, and I can certainly say that it is true for my own life, and for what our family has gone through over the past couple of years.
Some of the verses which have ministered to me the most over this time have been from the chapter you have been studying as a church, Psalm 119:65-72. As it turned out, after we moved to Norman, by God’s grace I got completely well … which is perhaps another story. But the lessons we learned, and what God did in our lives in and through this time, are invaluable. Let’s read these verses together and then talk about what they teach us about “The Goodness of God in the Midst of Affliction” …
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shawnethomas 