by Mako Kato
I want to share some of my personal story from this past year. Many of you have been praying for me and I appreciate you very much.
Today I want to talk about God’s sustaining love. Even when we are weak: physically, emotionally, and spiritually, God is with us. He never leaves us or forsakes us. And sometimes we do go through tough times. It is in these tough times that we learn to trust in the God who sustains us.
I had a condition that began in late 2008, where I would regurgitate food after meals. It started out with just spit during the summer, then I started regurgitating more and more food. My weight dropped. My sleep schedule got messed up. I would have to leave the table a number of times after eating to go regurgitate into the trash.
Some of it would stay down. Sometimes it would be hard to tell how much. But enough of it stayed down that I still had the energy to study, to play tennis, and to almost live normally (except for mealtimes). I went to a number of doctors: Gastroenterologists and surgeons who had ideas, but didn’t have any lasting solutions.
We had basically decided on surgery, but that surgery was stopped due to the fact that it probably wouldn’t have worked. (That’s another cool God story. Talk to me about it.) But later on in the summer I was slated for a surgery to insert a food tube and a gastric pacemaker, which would forcibly push food out of my stomach. But before the surgery, the gastroenterologist, Dr. Patterson, sent me to another doctor, Dr. Schneier, to try one more medicine. Dr. Schneier set in motion the process to get that medicine, but in the meantime he had me try a different medicine called mestinon. This medicine has to do with the nerves and was an unorthodox effort at fixing my problem. I was skeptical. I had tried a lot of medicines and most of them made me very drowsy and didn’t seem to help much.
But this medicine seemed to work.
Wait. I know this is a story about God’s sustaining love.
Where is God in the choice of a medicine? It makes me think that sometimes, God’s miracles are subtle. If you look at the process that got me taking this medicine, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. I was going to do one thing with one doc, who sent me to another doc for one medicine, but that doc didn’t think that medicine would work so he gave me a different medicine that none of the other doctors had mentioned before.
I guess I’m not completely healed, but I’m basically eating normally now and as long as I don’t overeat, nothing will come up. (Even if I do overeat, I might spit a small amount just once, instead of larger amounts upwards of five or six times.) I’m no longer worried about eating too much, or about grossing anybody out. The past couple days I’ve been sleeping better too, which is another praise.
All thing’s considered, I’ve gone from weighing 110 lb to 120 lb over the past few months and I haven’t weighed myself for a couple weeks. It’s such a blessing to be able to eat normally again. God has sustained me through that trial and he has healed me, at least for now. I know that in everything I can trust Him.
During these problems with my health, I found encouragement in His Word and in the Psalms. (Not to mention the many who were praying for me, God’s kids, from preschool to the older members of our church.) One Psalm I read a number of times was Psalm 139. I’m posting a link to it, since it is a long passage, but it is the Psalm that begins, “O Lord, you have searched me and known me.” (ESV) It goes on to describe the almighty, loving power of God. He knows when we sit down and stand up. He knows our thoughts. He made us and He cares about what happens to us.
We don’t have to worry in hard times, because God will provide. His love gives us strength to persevere. (Oh, and if you haven’t finished reading Psalm 139, please do.)
God Bless You. He always does, doesn’t he? We may not always understand why things happen the way they do, but God is good, and He loves us.