Your Son has Three Days to Live

At this very moment it is Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:45 AM. One year ago at this exact time and date, the doctors pulled me to the side and privately spoke these words, “Your son has three days to live.” They went on to give me an understanding of how his body would shut down and eventually die. Teddy had meningitis, MRSA, a blood clot behind his left eye and enough medical issues that he quickly became a teaching case for doctors at the teaching hospital in Greenville, SC.

Most of you know that the hours and days that followed were overwhelming for our family. We dispatched prayer requests around the globe. God came through like only He can. He performed a miracle. It is that simple. The days that followed November 9, 2006 were some of the darkest in my life. Yet in the end I discovered hope in a new a fresh way. Life remained difficult for months during Teddy’s recovery. In the end, Renee and I felt we needed to move to Greenville to be with our family. This may be, hands down, the best choice we have ever made.

Life still has its difficulties. We still find ourselves struggling from time to time. But HOPE is never far away. If God can pull my son out of the hands of death and bring him to full recovery, than He can do anything. As I write this, I know of so many people who are in hopeless situations. Just this week, I’ve known of a man who committed suicide, a young couple giving birth to a still-born child, marriages in crises, and so much more. As I have shared in each of these difficult situations, I am reminded that hope is a valuable commodity.

John Piper says biblical hope is: A confident expectation and desire for something good in the future. He goes on to say. “Biblical hope not only desires something good for the future; it expects it to happen. And it not only expects it to happen; it is confident that it will happen. There is a moral certainty that the good we expect and desire will be done.”

If you are in a situation where you struggle to find hope, be encouraged. I learned one year ago that hope can be found even in the darkest places of our lives. And no matter what goes on around me now, there IS hope. As Jesse Jackson said when he concluded his speech to the 1992 Democratic National Convention, “Keep Hope Alive…Keep Hope Alive…Keep Hope Alive!

What do you think? Have we lost sight of the value of hope? Why is our culture so hopeless? How has Jesus Christ brought hope to your life?