Choose LIFE!
by Melanie Hemry
Mary Colbert sat sweltering under a tree in Tulsa, Okla., reading her Bible while her husband, Don, finished a three-mile race. Leaning against the rough bark, she wiped perspiration from her face and wondered what compelled people to run in 100-degree heat and 100-percent humidity.
When Don came into view Mary sat up and stared. He must have been hit by a car! His legs appeared broken, unable to support his weight. Jumping up, she raced toward him, gasping as Don stumbled and fell, lying still as death in a race he barely finished.
Don Colbert was admitted to the City of Faith at Oral Roberts University, where he was a third-year medical student. His professors rushed to help him survive a massive heatstroke and make sense of his condition. A healthy, vivacious young man, Don was an avid athlete. Yet when he reached the ICU, he was in acute kidney failure and his once-muscular legs had shrunk in size and were now smaller than his arms.
Doctors performed a biopsy on his muscles and discovered that he’d suffered massive rhabdomyolysis—the breakdown of muscle tissue that leads to the release of muscle fiber contents into the blood. Those substances often cause kidney damage. In simple terms, his muscles had died, all the way to the bone, damaging his kidneys in the process. His doctors gathered at his bedside and explained the biopsy report.
“You’ll never walk again. You’ll be in a wheelchair for the rest of your life.”
Furious, Mary fired them all.
“What have you done?” Don asked when they were alone. “Those were my professors! I can’t miss months of medical school and graduate with my class without their help!”
Mary stormed out of the room.
After the door shut on the elevator, the voice of the Lord seemed to echo in the small space. 'He will run and not grow weary. He will walk and not faint.' Mary knew those words were a reference to Isaiah 40:31, “But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint” ("New International Version").
Mary returned to her husband’s bedside. “Man has spoken,” she said. “Now God has spoken. He said that you will run and not grow weary. You will walk and not be faint.”
“Mary,” Don said, “I believe you heard from God.”
Together, they took their stand.
BVOV : 11
