Living In the World of Need

By Pastor Brandon in Thinking About Sunday on 1/14/09

It has been some time since I last blogged. I have a resolution to do this a couple times a week. Anyways…we are teaching a series called Back in the Black at Canyon Creek. The theme to the finance series is how we walk through the different worlds we live in. Last week I discussed walking through the world of need. You can imagine with the current state of the economy, lay offs, foreclosures, bankruptcies, etc that this message really hit home with people. During the week I have heard a number of stories from people in our community. I wanted to share one testimony with you that I received this week. My hope is that it will encourage you as you walk through your world of need. It encourages me to always remember that God KNOWS what I need and that He cares. Thanks to Zanna Burgess for allowing me to share her story. Enjoy!

Hey Pastor Brandon,

Thought you might like to hear something cool that happened to me last night after talking about the season of “need.”

For several years (actually, much of my life) I’ve been struggling with some chronic health problems- nausea on a daily basis, horribly dry eyes, dry mouth, fatigue, and on and on the list goes. Sometimes the symptoms are so severe that I really strugle to maintain control of my life, rather than letting my health problems have control- constant mind over matter battle I guess.  I’ve seen more doctors than I can remember but the cause of my symptoms is still a mystery. Actually, I often joke by blaming my bouts of nausea or whatever on my own personal “plague.”
About a year ago I stumbled upon an autoimmune condition called Sjogren’s Syndrome that I thought sounded exactly like what I have been dealing with. I did quite a bit of research on it but found there’s not a cure, and most of the treatments are over the counter treatments that I’ve already been self treating with for ages. So I pretty much lost all faith that my situation could change and figured I’ll just keep grinning and bearing it as I’ve been doing for so long. But recently I’ve been realizing the importance of getting an actual diagnosis and sort of tried to reopen that door.
Anyway, that’s all just the background. I wasn’t even thinking about my health on Sunday when you were talking about need. However, I was watching TV before going to bed… Mystery Diagnosis… a medical mystery my nerdy nursing self is totally addicted to. I was about to turn it off when the next episode began and this lady mentions how she had an excess amount of cavities as a kid. I immediately remembered that from my research on Sjogren’s and continued watching for the next half hour as the lady telling her own story exactly described my life. Seriously- every single symptom, nothing left out. I kept thinking, ” I have to find a way to get in touch with this lady!” So I got up got online and lo and behold, on google I found a blog the lady had created to help people who saw the show get in touch with her!  The blog looked old and like it hadn’t been used in awhile, but I posted a comment and she emailed me back this morning, sending me her personal email and saying she was thrilled to help any way she could!

I guess the point is that although getting in touch with this random lady from TV doesn’t get me any closer to a firm diagnosis for the “Zanna Plague,” I was still able to get in touch with someone who can put a human perspective on a pathology I only understand from A: my own suffering and B: research from websites, textbooks, and medical journal.
An unlikely story maybe, but for me, a TREMENDOUS blessing in a season of drought that has lasted as long as I can remember.

Just thought you might like to know what God is doing. :)

Zanna

Back to Top