I’m A Miracle Man

“I’m a miracle man.” Merrill, from “Signs” (played by Joaquín Phoenix).

“Miracles, as I think of them, will tend to be improbable.” Lawrence Shapiro, Philosophy Professor, University of Wisconsin, Madison.

I’m not here to prove anything to you (or Professor Shapiro); I’m just a husband, father, grandfather (aka “Poppy”), chronic pain sufferer and writer, trying to make sense of the world around me.

I’m not a preacher, evangelist or professor, and I don’t have the “gift of healing,” as we Pentecostals like to call it. All that being said, though, I’ve witnessed miracles all around me.

If you’ve read some of my previous blogs, you’ll know I tried to commit suicide when I was in my early 20’s. I took over 60 pills of various sorts—mainly pain pills and ibuprofen—and went to bed, expecting never to wake up. The next morning, though, I was taken to the hospital and had my stomach pumped, only to find…

NOTHING. I hadn’t gone to the bathroom and I hadn’t purged, so the pills literally disappeared. The doctors claimed they couldn’t find evidence of even an aspirin having been taken. There was not one pill in my stomach.

It was a miracle.

As many of you may also know, I suffer from chronic pain in my back, hips and legs. I have had two back surgeries (the last one a four-level fusion in my lower spine) and suffer from severe scoliosis, arthritis (in my back, hips and legs), spinal stenosis and degenerative disc disease. I’ve been prayed for by the best preachers I know, yet in over four decades, no healing ever came.

Several months ago, however, deciding I was going to stubbornly begin praying for a healing and not give up until I received one, I gathered a list of Bible verses on healing. I told God, “I’m gonna read this list at least twice every day, whether I believe them at that very moment or not.”

Then came the morning a couple months back when I sat up in bed and suddenly realized I was about 50% better.

Just like that.

I’m currently praying and believing for God to finish the job soon.

My daughter, Jess (pictured with my son, Trey), fell in with a bad crowd as a teenager and was strung out on drugs for a spell. She left home angry one night and we honestly didn’t know if we’d ever see her again. She was gone for years. Raising Trey was a welcome distraction during this time, but the pain of what happened with our little girl was an underlying feeling of dread in both my wife, Laura, and me. It hurt so deep, and we were so terrified, we barely spoke of it.

Then suddenly she reached out to us and said she needed help. We sent her to a drug rehab in Arizona, and with the help of God and her family, she overcome addiction, never again to fall back into its relentless clutches.

She went on to not only attend nursing school, but became a tutor after the first semester and graduate at the top of her class. My little girl killed it, man. She rose from the ashes like a phoenix, and I can barely put into words how proud I am of her.

That’s a miracle, jack.

Trey began to stutter right after he started elementary school, and while some days were worse than others, speaking was always a struggle for him. We prayed for him for many years, and spent thousands of dollars sending him to speech therapy, with little difference.

Not that he let it stop him, or even him slow down.

Football, wrestling, band, JROTC, tutoring and on and on. Stuttering may have slowed his speech a bit, but my boy refused to let it stop him.

A couple weeks ago, chillin’ out with Laura and me watching television, he suddenly said, “Hey guys, what is it like not to stutter?”

We barely acknowledged his statement, not because we didn’t hear him or didn’t care, but because it honestly broke our hearts.

It hurt us so deeply that up until last night we didn’t even mention it to each other.

Yesterday Trey stood up on his own and asked our little church, Seymour Life, to pray for his stutter.

He said he felt the death-like grip on his chest and his vocal cords release, and for the first time in many, many years, he could fully relax.

And his stutter was healed.

HEALED!

That’s all I can say about it at this point, because it’s too emotional for me to talk about right now. I can barely type this without crying.

To God be the glory.

Yes, in case you’re wondering, God is still in the miracle-working business. Don’t you ever doubt it.

If you are in need of a miracle, my advice would be to start praying and not let up until God answers your prayers! It can happen, we’re living proof.

Prayin’ for you and yours.

Blessings.

 ^“Those wonderful deeds are constantly in my thoughts. I cannot stop thinking about them. O God, your ways are holy. Where is there any other as mighty as you? You are the God of miracles and wonders! You still demonstrate your awesome power (Psalm 77:12-14).”