God should receive all glory for our health, our successes, and any other good thing, but the Holy Spirit also encourages us to give proper honor to people. Three doctors in Gwinnett County have spent quite a bit of time with me over the past four years. All three of these men are strong believers in our Lord Jesus and I have been blessed by their expertise, their encouragement, and their prayers. Doctor Rene Latoni and his wife, Barbara, came to our home to share the diagnosis of cancer. But they did not simply deliver bad news and leave. They shared hope of a Great Physician and we all sat down on the floor and prayed to this One that knows all. Hoyt Gazaway, a surgeon, was the next doctor we visited. As often as doctors deal with bad news, I imagine they have learned to contain emotions. On more than one occasion, I saw tears in Doctor Gazaway’s eyes as he discussed my situation. Every time I was on his operating table, he prayed with me before surgery. Alexander Saker is my oncologist in Gwinnett County. Dr. Saker is a kind man who loves God and encourages me in faith. He is also a splendid doctor who accepts a humble role in helping patients fight horrible diseases.
I’ve also had many fine doctors at Emory Hospital in Atlanta. My favorite doctor there recently moved to Chicago. Dr. Redei is from Hungary and looks a bit like Bono of U2 fame. Under a rough exterior is a kind man who genuinely loved me. An unselfish reason I desired God to heal me miraculously was that I wanted to be a sign to Dr. Redei that there was a Father in Heaven who had power to do all things. His wife, also a doctor, is a Christian, but I often detected a bit a skepticism in Dr. Redei. But there is no doubt God used this man to help me. He not only was knowledgeable about my disease, but he knew how to motivate me to keep fighting. I’ll never forget his words as I was lying in a hospital bed, shortly after my stem cell transplant, thinking things would never get better. With his thick accent he chided, “What’s wrong with you? I’ve got an eighty year old patient down the hall who’s tougher than you are!” As weak as I was, I think I still had enough competitiveness to at least try to keep up with a patient forty years my elder…
Just recently, my wife had a conversation with the doctor that helped deliver our three children. Somehow, the subject of “amniotic fluid embolism” came up – a condition where the amniotic fluid enters the bloodstream of a mother who has just given birth. The doctor said this was fatal 100% of the time, but Susan corrected her. “When I was born, my mom had an ‘amniotic fluid embolism’ and she is still alive today!” Doctors used every bit of her type blood in all of Chattanooga and had blood flown in from New Orleans to keep her alive. Susan’s mom was in the hospital four months, but today you’ll not find a healthier eighty-one year old than Lou Taylor. We have a newspaper clipping from August of 1959 with a picture of the mother and daughter who survived quite an ordeal. After Susan told this story, her doctor replied, “Well, that was an act of God!”
Don’t you love ‘acts of God’?
“Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness… Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.” Psalm 150