2019-2020

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:1

If you’ve been around here long enough, you’ll know that verse is my favourite verse in the Bible, along with it’s companion John 1:14:

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

Together these two verses define our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This past year has been a year for myself and my family to draw closer to Christ, and now it seems as though the whole world needs to draw close to Him also. With the continued spreading of the COVID-19 (Corona virus), people are really beginning to wonder what is happening.

The pandemic is scaring a lot of people including me. I’m just glad that I was discharged from hospital prior to the virus taking a stronghold in Canada. As it stands right now, Canada has closed its’ borders from land, sea and air, something that is unprecedented in history. The question remains though, is it enough? Only time will tell.

For myself, looking back over the last year, prior to the pandemic, I’ve experienced my first ever health scare. At 55 years old I was relatively healthy. I wasn’t a health nut and didn’t necessarily eat correctly, but I did ok. I wasn’t exercising in any organized way, but I did a lot of climbing on and off my trailers and walking around farmyards. So in all honesty I think I was doing pretty good.

That all changed though on August 9th 2019 when I was admitted into hospital with what eventually was diagnosed as Guillain Barré Syndrome (GBS). And I’m sure like most of you, I’d never heard of it before. But I’ll say this, I may not have heard about it then, but I have full knowledge of it now, and it’s certainly something that no one wants to happen to them. The illness eats away at the myelin coating around the nerves and causes them to short circuit. There are a number of variants, and according to my neurologist, the variant that I had was extremely rare, in fact they could only find 30 recorded cases worldwide. I’m not sure if I should count myself fortunate to be in such company.

So as I said earlier if I look back on the previous year, it’s one for the ages, and a time to draw closer to Christ. It has also provided me some opportunities that I never thought would happen. While I was in hospital, I had a number of visits from a Pastor at at a church in Winnipeg. He told me that his church was praying for me. I told him that when I was discharged and feeling better, I’d love to have the opportunity to speak before his church to personally thank him and his church, most of whom have never met me. Just recently the new pastor of our church told me that the three churches in our district are all getting together in May, if circumstances allow it, and he’d like me to do a presentation there on my journey.

And our church, which only has a pastor preaching about once a month, has always been asking me to preach a sermon, and now I’ve agreed to do one in mid-May. These are all things I’ve been afraid of doing, but now it just seems natural and normal. And I know it will not be me speaking alone, I’ll have the Holy Spirit up there with me.

As we continue through 2020 and follow the progression of the pandemic, it’s up to all of us to do our part in slowing the progression. But it’s also important to remember to continue to put things into God’s hands. Satan is always out there trying to divert our attention from God. We must resist him and keep our eyes set upon Jesus. Now more than ever we must continue to do that. My hope is that we all come through this unscathed.

God bless