Lisa's Testimony

I am not much of a public speaker, never was. I have always said to Mom that I was the Moses to Audrey’s Aaron… so you’ll have to bear with me.

First of all, I’d like to thank each and every one of you for all your prayers over the last 7 months. Without them, I probably wouldn’t be here tonight, I’d have given up the battle and lost the war. Your prayers were a source of inspiration and the driving force that kept me going even when I felt I couldn’t do it anymore.

As you know, I grew up here in the church from the Cradle Roll on up to becoming a Senior Soldier (and all points in between), but as I got older and became a teenager, I found myself wondering what it was all about. None of it had any real meaning for me. Everything I did I felt I was doing because it was expected of me, because of who my parents and grandparents were. I lost all interest and eventually fell away. I didn’t fall far, I knew what I believed but it wasn’t a personal thing. Life went on and, like everyone else, I had my ups and downs… sometimes, I felt, more of the latter than the former. I kept looking for whatever it was that my Mom and Nanny had. I went to church after church after church but it wasn’t that. I gave up. Eventually I found a little church not far from me and I started going every Sunday so I figured I’d found it. But I hadn’t, not at that point.

Last fall, I had a stroke. It was a devastating blow, not only to me, but to my entire family and all my friends. How could this happen to one of my age? Why now? I mean I was doing good, had a job I loved for thirteen years, I was going to church again and trying to live like I knew I should despite other disabilities and obstacles that I had already faced and overcome. But last October 1st is a day that I will never forget as long as I live… it was to become a turning point for me.

God knew what was about to happen and started setting things in motion for it because, that night, for some reason, I didn’t lock my door as soon as I came in, as was my usual habit, and I plugged in my cell phone at the kitchen table right away so it would recharge (something I would have done before I went to bed, if I remembered at all). I was making a cup of coffee and a piece of toast for my supper when it hit: the first of two strokes, though I didn’t know what it was for sure at the time. I couldn’t butter that toast when it popped, I couldn’t even lift the knife off of the counter. I tried to drink my coffee but only succeeded in pouring it down the front of my shirt. I didn’t even feel it and it didn’t burn me, all I felt was wet. God’s protecting hand was already encompassing me. I needed to get to the hospital, I knew that. I didn’t know what was wrong but I knew it was bad and I was scared because I knew that there was still unfinished business between me and God. My body had shut down. There was no pain, there was no feeling at all, nothing except a complete numbness. I couldn’t move to get to my main phone on the other side of the apartment, the cell phone was virtually dead on the table, but that was my only hope. I made my first ‘call’ to God, “Oh Lord, I need help, I’m scared… please help me reach the cell phone.”

With His help I managed (with my good leg) to shove that kitchen chair across the floor from where I was sitting until I could reach my cell phone… a distance of less than five feet and it took nearly 20 minutes. I called for an ambulance and then I called my sister. She and my brother-in-law met me at the hospital. By the time I reached there, I was back to myself, and then, just as they were checking me out while Heather was with me, the second stroke hit and took everything I had except for my mental faculties. I knew everything that was going on and never once lost consciousness.

There I was, on an ER gurney, not sure if I was in this world or the next and too scared to care. Then a sense of peace washed over me and the words of this chorus started going through my mind:

“The anchor holds though the ship is battered,
The anchor holds though the sail is torn,
I have fallen on my knees as I faced the raging seas,
But the anchor holds in spite of the storm.”

I reached out and grasped on to those words, they were all I had, my Lifeline. All through that night in the ER and the battery of tests they ran to confirm the diagnosis, those words played over and over and over in my mind. For the first time in my life, I truly prayed. Mom practically dropped everything and was on the next flight to Toronto… she and Heather were there with me everyday for the next two weeks but I realized that, even when they weren’t physically there, I wasn’t alone… God was with me.

A couple of days after Mom arrived, I asked for my CD player to be brought in for me. Do you know what was in it? A Ray Boltz CD with the song “The Anchor Holds” on it. God’s hand was in that, too. I asked for my Bible, and started doing something I’d never done before: I read it. As soon as my eyes opened in the morning, I reached for my Bible, laid it open on the bed because I couldn’t hold onto it, and read, mostly the Psalms at first but I was reading AND I gave my life back to Him to control.

Since that time, I have come a long way with His help. Three weeks in one hospital, more than two months in the rehab hospital and several months of therapy as an outpatient. All that is behind me, physiotherapy still continues as I have a long way to go yet and God is still with me.

Through all of this, I have realized that being good wasn’t enough, going to church wasn’t enough, I had to have a relationship with God. As I have said before, going to church didn’t make me a Christian any more than standing in a garage could make me a car… something was missing. God was missing. I was blessed, I got a second chance to make things right, not everyone gets that. It took an event that almost took my life from me to make me see that and to realize that God could call me from this life at any point in time and, if I wasn’t ready, I was doomed. I learned something that we have often heard before but not many actually believe: if He brings us to it, He’ll bring us through it. I know now that if God calls me Home tonight, my house is all in order. Is yours? Don’t wait until something profound or life threatening happens to you; you may not be blessed with a second chance to make things right with God. Reach out for an anchor, and make sure it grips the Solid Rock. You won’t be sorry. May He bless you all.