Oil Spill
God Will Use Our Personal History as His Holy Ground
It was late 1961 spilling into the new year of 1962. I had contracted a case of the German hard measles and was very sick. I remember the ice tub baths to get my fever down, as high as 105-106, damaging my brain. The vaccine for measles, mumps, and rubella had not yet been invented. It was not until 1963 that a vaccine was first made available. So no, for inquiring minds, it was not the measles vaccine that caused my encephalitis.
It was not until a few decades later in the 70s-80s that what I suffered would have been diagnosed as Reye (Rye) Syndrome.1 Thinking back, I can empathize with my mother who gave me aspirin to bring my fever down. No one knew back then. And it was not until I was in my 50s or early 60s that she told me of learning about Reye Syndrome. No doubt she put two and two together but never told me until decades after I had been healed. For her, it likely was another emotional pain deposit; after learning of it, never once did I ever fault her. I hope she knew that I never blamed her. Both our life stories were being written by God’s hand.
Controllable but Not Curable
Incubated at home while the measles ran its course and subsequent weakness from being so ill, it was exciting to look forward to turning five years old in March. I got to celebrate my birthday on the local kids TV program of Uncle Jimmy’s Clubhouse. It was the first outing allowed since having contracted the measles.
Not long after I suffered my first convulsive episode, I was diagnosed with grand mal epilepsy.2 By the time I turned 6 and entered first grade at 6-1/2 (kindergarten was rare, preschool non-existent), an episode would occur without any kind of regularity. Sometimes a single episode followed by a lengthy abatement, other times a cluster of occurrences – utterly frightening for young me and my parents. And it was always at night in bed.*
Dr. Gottleib, a small German neurologist, was my specialty physician. Early on as the condition manifested itself, he scheduled a nighttime study my mother took me to at the hospital near our home. I vividly recall being fitted with little round metal discs attached all over my skull, then spending the night in a room with EEG3 monitors that shed an eerie green glow in the otherwise darkened room, with Dr. Gottleib in attendance. Half-German myself, I liked him. He was a safe ‘touchpoint’ for me in the throes of a very scary medical condition.
Burned in my memory is my mother’s fingers gently washing my hair in between all the electrodes that had to be left on for more EEGs that followed. After studying the results, two things were told my parents: One, I would need to be on prescription meds (two in particular) for the rest of my life to help control the seizures. Two, the severity of my condition put me in the less than 5% range of children who would ever be much more than a lifetime invalid. The brain’s responses was extensive to my nervous system; *school would be difficult. This was controllable but not curable, the prognosis limited for living a ‘normal’ life.
The Teacher & The Healer Had Other Ideas
It was in Divine Third Person of the Trinity that I shared the timing of my healing with receiving the Holy Spirit infilling me. The two are inextricably linked; from that time on I have never had another seizure, grand mal or otherwise. He had come to indwell me. Years later I would come to know that was only His beginning work.
Parents, listen to what your children tell you. I was nine when I was healed, and that summer our family was preparing for a trip to Yellowstone National Park. My mother realized I was nearly out of my two medications and was about to order refills when I told her I did not need them anymore because “Jesus healed me.”
Again, on the surface, it had been some time since I’d had an epileptic episode. But of course that was chalked up to being militant with taking my meds. I was ensured to never miss a dose. But that day, as my mother later testified, though fear struck her heart she sensed the Lord telling her to listen to her daughter. This, my friends, is where faith is not just words but put to work in acts taken or not taken. She did not refill the prescriptions; in fact, I simply never took another pill. Sixty years later is sufficient proof that yes indeed, “Jesus healed me.”
How did I know that in order to make such a confident statement? Because my spirit knew, and out it popped. “Out of the mouths of babes”, and “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” {Jesus} are most applicable. Little did I know that I would begin writing of life in His Kingdom half a century later. All because He first introduced me to it by His healing Hands.
There’s Always More to Another’s Story
One’s childhood home environment and spiritual atmosphere, godly, ungodly, or a confusing mix, makes deep impressions. How each child responds is unique to them, which never surprises our heavenly Father. There is not a single person whose life He is not intimately familiar with. We open or close the door to Him.
There’s always more to another’s story. Every closet has a skeleton or two or an abundance of them. It is the ugly side of the family tree, and sometimes the ugliness is displayed in the most non-redemptive ways. In the case of what ails us, it is my opinion that first, the whole person (spirit, soul, and body) is stressed.4 Before the inner vows and judgments, before the determined attitude, before the ‘truth’ is set that one is going to adhere to and build a life upon. Our human spirit is God’s great treasure, while desired for defilement by the evil one.
The body reacts (you can read all you want about stress), followed by the soul engaging. When the physical and mental stressors themselves are not dealt with but rather pushed down to get on with living, our human spirit becomes the dumping ground of the emotions. Every memory has an emotion attached to it. The good things are kept nearer the surface of the mind. As will be described in Part 3, the human spirit is certainly not surface.
Dumping Ground of the Emotions
The repository of our human spirit is not something most people think about. Much research and attention has been given to the physical part of our being, followed by our soul – mind, will, and emotions. When I was active in faith-based coaching, I had a person who prodded me to offer more soul work, even as I was engaged in the path I knew the Lord had already set me on; that of increasing focus on our human spirit. Our internal connection as a tri-part being has been so compartmentalized. That’s where Part 3 of my testimony is headed.
We may be believers in Christ and still, we are inundated with all kinds of information and remedies that stop short of Romans 12:1. Being urged “…by the compassions (or mercies) of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God…” Don’t stop me if I’ve said this before: “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”
I do not subscribe to the name it and claim it, grab it and blab it verbiage of those who won’t let Jesus handle them. When we present our very self to Him, His compassion and love flows to us, for He will not turn us away.
It is we who need to be turned. He’s up for that.
Gracefully Free
The Day the Hand of God Turned My Brain
Free Photo by Pexels / Pixabay – “Oil Spill”
1 Dr. Douglas Reye worked as a chief pathologist at the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children in Sydney, Australia. He first recognized a distinct and dangerous pattern of sudden brain swelling (encephalopathy) and fatty liver failure in children that typically followed viral infections like the flu or chickenpox (note: or as in my case, viral measles infection). Along with colleagues, he first identified and published a comprehensive medical description of the condition in 1963. Dr. Reye identified the physical symptoms and organ damage; subsequent public health studies in the 1970s and 1980s linked the syndrome to giving aspirin to children with viral illnesses, leading to widespread warnings that have made the condition very rare today. No child or teenager with a viral infection should ever be given aspirin.
2 From Mayo Clinic: Grand mal (tonic-clonic) seizures cause a massive, synchronized surge of electrical activity across both sides of the brain, temporarily disrupting normal brain communication, causing a complete loss of consciousness, and driving violent, involuntary muscle contractions throughout the body. During a seizure the brain is in an electrical storm: millions of brain cells (neurons) firing at the same time instead of communicating in an orderly way. The rest of the Mayo Clinic description following a seizure (not included here) fit my symptoms, with the exception that I was left paralyzed for up to 30 minutes on one side. During the years until healed at 9, I had a history of migraines, with vomiting finally bringing release and relief of the head pain.
3 An electroencephalogram (EEG) is a test that measures electrical activity in the brain. The test uses small metal discs called electrodes that attach to the scalp. Brain cells communicate via electrical impulses, and this activity shows up as wavy lines on an EEG recording. Brain cells are active all the time, even during sleep. An EEG is one of the main tests to help diagnose epilepsy.
* I never had a seizure/convulsion at school or during the day. I loved school and was a good student, graduating with a 4.0.
4 Feeling stressed is your body and mind’s natural reaction to pressure, challenge, or demands (or as many experience(d), their environment and/or atmosphere). While short-term stress can help you focus or meet a deadline, long-term or chronic stress can harm your physical and mental well-being. The term ‘stress’describes a state of emotional or physical strain.
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