Welcome back to another podcast of Struggling Well. And as you join us this week, I been reminded through our producer Tim Briggs that I ought to be willing to share some things that have happened in my life and my world. And I do it because I think about what Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 when he says, "We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of the affliction and we experienced in Asia, for we were utterly burdened beyond our strength, so that we despised of life itself." Now, my situation is not quite as dire. as Paul's, but I don't want you to be unaware of some of the things that have been going on. And the reason is because you can be praying. So, suddenly and surprisingly to me, in the end of August, I had a pacemaker inserted into my body, which is a strange, thing to have happen, particularly when you're awake, as they're putting it in. and I was not planning on a pacemaker. The events that led up to it were pretty dramatic. probably caused more trauma for Suzi than it did for me. but as of August 29th, I now have a pacemaker in me. And that's a little weird feeling to know that there's a device that's not part of your body that you were given. but it's helping your body function in the way that it's supposed to. So, and the reason why Paul says it to this group of people in second Corinthians is so that they would pray. And that's what I would also ask of you that you would just you would be willing to pray for me
in that passage. In 2 Corinthians, I'm going to be reading from the NLT. It goes on to say, but as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God who raises the dead. And he did rescue us from mortal danger. And he will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in him. And he will continue to rescue us. And you are helping us by praying for us. And I know we talked last week about the catastrophic events that occurred in our country. And those events occur around the world. But we had a close to home like right there catastrophic event in our lives. And what it does is it brings you to this crossroads I think like how am I going to how am I going to respond to this Lord because it was out of the blue the circumstances Jimmy has really given you the reader digest version. I could break it up into many many sessions but I'm watching Tim smirk across the table in our studio here. And I think what it did for both of us was it reminded us that life is a vapor, that it's here and then it's gone. And so what it does for each of us, and Jimmy's experiencing different things than I am, he experienced the actual event and I watched the event. And so there's there are places that God wants to take both of us. And I think mostly to be able to say, you know, But we can't rely on ourselves. Now, I don't care how much you jog or eat well or do whatever. It is our days are numbered by God. And we have to trust each day, be thankful for each day, enjoy each day, and also remember that it's like a fog. It's here and then gone.
Yeah. And I think it exposed and Suzi, you know this, it exposed my like it's hard for me to talk about it, but it exposes the arrogance that thinks I don't need other people. And we talk all the time about the importance of community and so that is a huge part of this for me is letting community know people who are close to us now on the podcast
so that I don't try to do this on my own. And I think that's one of the dangers for me in my life has been all along I don't need anybody else. I can handle this myself. Well, that's an arrogant statement. And I am grateful to the medical community that did what they needed to do to have my heartbeat in the right rhythm. But ultimately, it's God
and that's where I go. That's why to me the importance of community. I don't need more doctors. I have a doctor now who will keep up with the physical side of what they did. But it's the community of people who will stand with me and pray with us and take away the arrogance that makes me think I can do this on my own. You know, we've had a funny experience through this is we were at a gathering recently and a person who I would call a friend. We don't see each other that often, but I really like her. I think she really likes me. And she had found out about Jimmy's incident through the Christian grapevine, which is fast and furious, but I'm glad for it. And she said, "Why didn't you tell me?" And what it brought up in me is that question, why didn't I mean, I she and I don't call each other back and forth, but I know how much she respects and loves Jimmy. And I think that arrogance that you talk about is part of it, but also it's after being in the ministry for the years we were and kind of living a fishbowl existence. Not it was not horrible, but we people knew a lot about our lives. Is that I think we both just struggled with what do we do? We don't want to announce something. And yet what I found was that people wanted to know to pray and to see how they could care for us. And that's the part that you miss if you don't do like what Paul did and our feeble attempt today to let you know so that you're not unaware. we are frail and crumbling day by day. All of us, not just us. All of us. You all are laughing. Jimmy and Tim are laughing. Maybe I'm crumbling a little faster than you guys. It's okay. fail and crumbling.
Yeah, I know. It's a little dramatic. A little dramatic. A little dramatic, but the point is we need one another. And Paul takes this opportunity in second Corinthians to tell people it was rough. It was, you know, we were in such bad straits that we wanted to die. He wanted to die. So, I think if anything you come away from with this is you need community. You need to be in a place where you're being taught and worshiping together, you need to be in church. That's I'm just going to say that straight out because that's what Jesus established that the church would not flounder because it was built on him.
Yeah. And it's and it is the truth, Suzi, that we deem community. I And everybody's community is going to look different. Your community could be a small grouping of people, you know, three, four, five people. I don't know. Your community could be your an adult class at your in your church. It could be whatever. But it is that flesh and blood sitting across the table, standing looking eye to eye at somebody and saying, "How are you doing?" And then having the courage to be honest and say, "This is what's going on in my life right now. Would you pray for me?" And I just believe that's one of the byproducts, if you will, of the COVID years where we were told we couldn't meet together. And some people now have gotten in the habit of just sitting at home and watching on their TV. screen. That's great. The technology allows something like that to happen, but it's never in my mind a substitute for sitting face to face and having community with other people who are believers who will pray for you, will who will look at you with genuine concern and honest reactions. So, we encourage community. We encourage you finding your church, if you don't have one, to find one and to settle in and allow that community to help be involved in your everyday life and your walk with Christ. Thanks for joining us. To learn more about the Struggling Well podcast, visit tandemspirituality. com.