Because We Can

Once I spoke at my daughters elementary school. While speaking to the class about my dealings with dialysis and a transplant, one girl (who lived across from her grandparents) asked me a question. “Was your sickness hereditary?” I looked puzzled as to why a 12 year old would ask me this. She continued tearfully “ I am diabetic and have to give myself multiple shots per day. My father was adopted and I don’t know if it came from his family. What I want to know is, why did God allow this to happen to me?!” I looked around as all the teachers looked at me, wondering what I would say. I asked, “How many of you see what she has to do everyday?” They all raised their hand. “How many of you could do what she has to do everyday?” No one raised their hand. I then walked closer to her, and as she was crying l said “ Do you know why God gives this to us? Because He knows we can handle it.”

I can do all things.

You have to believe in yourself even when others say you can’t. They may look at your weakness from the outside , but they don’t know that there is a beast inside of you.

I was once a strong and powerful man. 270lbs and could command my body to do almost anything. However, I didn’t know how much I had in me until I lost what was on my surface. I have had many hospitalizations that have pushed me to the brink. A few years ago, I went into the hospital and was placed on a ventilator. After coming off, I walked around ICU. My son told me how the doctors and nurses would huddle around me. Not to check on me, but to listen to my words of encouragement. Even though I had just come off my death bed (again), I still had the strength to encourage them.