I know July 16 is just another day on the calendar to you and to most people. July 16, 1974 was a day that changed everything for my family, myself, and our now 55 year-long ministry. This is now 50 years from 1974 to 2024.
First let me say, I am very blessed to be alive. This was a MIRACLE DAY for God gave me another opportunity to live. Most people 50 years ago who had a brain aneurysm did not live or even know what happened! Eternity was their destiny as soon as they never woke up.
It was July 16, 1974. I was 24. Vikki and I had been married 4 ½ years. We had a two year old son Matthew and were in Nashville, TN recording our 6th album project, “Family Style”. One song title on that record you may recognize, “They baptized Jesse Taylor”.
We had finished one half of that record with 6 songs for the first side. It was about 9 pm and I was swimming at the Monterey Motel pool where we were staying that week. With one more jump from a diving board into 10 feet of water, our lives came to a screeching halt. Let me say just a bit about this nightmare in Nashville story.
I went to two different hospitals in Nashville, 3 days apart. Both medical centers gave me a bottle of pain pills and said, “You have a pressure headache” which was very true, but a very wrong diagnosis! Eight days later after going back to Hilltop Studio and recording the second have of that album, hitching up our travel tailer with an easy-lIft hitch, and riding 4 hours on to Louisville, KY, our next concert stop, going through a chiropractor treatment, eight days later I ended up at hospital #3 which is where I became paralyzed from the stroke. I was there 49 days with the first 30 or so with complete bedrest in a darkened hospital room because I could not stand any amount of light from photophobia. (You know what photophobia feels like when you leave your optometrist after he dialate’s your eyes.)
We all have experienced difficult, hard, tough, trying moments in life, some worse than others. And we often keep pushing the “WHY” button and questioning God’s thought process of why he would say “Yes” to our challenges. We were in the same question mode.
Let me say, it’s not wrong or a sin to ask God our “why questions” One of the seven statements Jesus said while nailed and hanging on the cross was, “Father, WHY have you forsaken me?” Four observations:
a) If Jesus asked the why question, WE CAN TOO!
b) If Jesus asked, “why” and did not sin, neither are we.
c) Jesus did not get a “Thus saith the Lord answer right then to His why question.
d) Yet Jesus did see the answer to his question as he look out at the people who had nailed him to the cross and said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
When he looked out at the sinners who nailed him to the tree, he saw you and me. For our sins are just a lethal as the sins committed 2,000 years ago by people who unfairly condemned Jesus to die on a cross, shouting, “Crucify Him!”
Speaking of fairness, who among us has not thought, “God what I am going though is not fair.” Listen to me closely. Fairness has never been an issue with God. If God were to treat us fairly, who should and would die for my sins? The answer for all of us would be, “I should have to die for my sins”.
If anyone on earth should have been treated with fairness, it should have been the Son of God. Not even Jesus got through life without being treated in an unfair way.
For Your Information (FYI), We are re-releasing Don’s book, “The Overcomer” which came out in 1985. It was written by a young gal whose parents and my parents were friends for years. Marette was a musician who had traveled the country with her guitar, drum, fiddle, and piano skills. When our youngest son Monte was born, we took Mareete with us to do a revival in IL. I told her about my desire to write a book about overcoming paralysis from a stroke. She decided to move to Centerville and write the book. It took over a year to write. She tells Don’s story of overcoming a stroke at such an early age.
We have added a section in the front which tells more about our early days of singing and getting started. We also added a section in the back of the book, “Where are they now”. Everyone in the book script now are older. Our only child them Matthew was 2 years old (Matt) now is 52 and a grandpa twice. Martha Felton, who you know from our Unionville church family was born two years after my stroke. Monte, our youngest son, was born seven years after Martha. And then Vikki’s car accident that claimed both of her lower legs and feet was six years ago. So we put an update about her challenges and really the book now could be titled now, “The Overcomers”.
The book is coming out on Amazon. For those who do nothing on-line, I have some copies in stock in my office that you can purchase for encouragement to your own spiritual journey. They are $10 on-line or $14 postpaid. I encourage you to get a copy.
One of my favorite scriptures is Hebrews 5:7-9 which give us a clear snapshot of Jesus life and attitude here on earth before he was killed. We can learn much from his example when facing the cross.
Jesus lived on earth with a human physical body that experienced what you know as life. He felt good, helped hid dad, a carpenter, had a cold and flu like you. He felt disappointments and knew all about sibling rivalry with several half brothers and sisters.
The Bible names Jesus’ brothers in Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3 as James, Joses (short for Joseph Jr.), Simon, and Judas. Matthew 13:56 also mentions that Jesus had sisters, but does not name them. However, Mark 6:3 mentions that the people of Nazareth say, “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” . This suggests that Jesus had at least two sisters.
Jesus, the oldest of Mary and Joseph’s children, came to earth with one purpose to accomplish. To be the perfect unblemished sacrifice for sinners.
My prayer is for each of us to enjoy our positive rewarding moments and to allow God to use our difficult challenging moments to draw us closer to Jesus. Each of us have some “up” moments and some “down” moments. It’s not just what happens to has but what we allow God to accomplish through our ups and downs that fulfilled God’s purpose statement for our life.
Our vision is “me centered” and definitely near-sighted. God’s vision takes a long look! He sees what his will can and does accomplish. We all want life served to us on a silver platter. Even Jesus expressed those thought when he said, Father, if there is anyway this cup can pass, let it pass, never-the-less, not my will but thine be done.”
Listen to Hebrews 5:-7-9 NIV “7 During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent (LOUD) cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent ubmission. 8 Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered 9 and, once made perfect (COMPLETE is a better translation), he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.”
Jesus prayed to the same God you pray to. This is the God who listened to his own Son’s prayers. He is the Father who could have saved his only son from death. This scripture even says Jesus’ prayer was heard along with his loud cries and tears. Have you ever been there yourself? Sure we all have experienced life’s frustrations and seemingly dead-end streets where there were no good answers. This scripture says his prayers were heard because of his reverent submission. Submission to who and to what? He submitted himself to his father’s will, father’s way, father’s words, and father’s plan for saving mankind which was his father’s work for him to accomplish.
What will you learn from this short read? Life is not always easy and explainable, yet we know God sees everything before it happens. He could have said, “Don does not need to experience a stroke and Vikki for sure, does not need a paralyzed husband for 50 years. There is a valid part of me that says, “I could have better praised God with my guitar and piano skills. I could have been a better servant for God with two good working hands, two good legs, and a better voice.” God didn’t give me a vote! God didn’t call me up the day before and ask, “Would a stroke be okay with you tomorrow?” He saw it coming and allowed it to happen.
We all need to have a submissive attitude toward God. I may write another book, “Attitudes when life Hurts”. Or another book, “Accepting, adjusting, and going on”. Both are currents talks (messages) God has given me to share with others, who may hear the message once, but the message will sink further into their heart and soul if they read it over and over again.
50 years of life after a major stroke is indeed a cause for celebration!
Psalms 118:24 “This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it”.
Coping with Crisis 