No Picture
God's Love

Having Polio Was a Privilege, Not a Punishment

Growing up, I was angry at God. To me, he was either heartless or distant, if he even existed at all. In any event, I wanted nothing to do with him.
My story begins in India, where I contracted polio as an infant before receiving the vaccine. The doctors mistakenly gave me cortisone to lower my high fever, allowing the virus to spread throughout my body, which left me paralyzed within days. They encouraged my parents to leave India to seek better medical care, so we moved to England and then to Canada. My first surgery was at age two, and I endured 21 major operations throughout childhood. Only at age seven was I able to walk.
What was then the Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children in Montreal functioned as a second home. I lived there for months at a time, once passing a nine-month stretch in a body cast. About a dozen other girls lived on the same ward. We could only see our families on weekends during the brief visiting hours.
Without parents around to guide us, we grew up on our own, making up our own rules and assumptions about life. We learned to do whatever the nurses asked, lest we get cold food, the last sponge bath, or the silent treatment. Since there was no one to hear our complaints, we all learned to stifle our feelings and do what we were told.
Giving God a chance
I vividly remember my friend Belva, one of the few mobile girls on the ward, who would play Barbies with me on my bed. She was sick for a few weeks and then suddenly disappeared. The next day, they took her things off her nightstand and remade her bed. When I asked where Belva was, I was sharply told to mind my own business. No one mentioned her again. I was perhaps too young to understand what had happened, but the loss hardened me.
Life between hospital …1 You have reached the end of this Article Preview
To continue reading, subscribe now. Subscribers have full digital access.

Already a CT subscriber? Log in for full digital access.

Have something to add about this? See something we missed? Share your feedback here.

Home delivery of CT magazine
Complete access to articles on ChristianityToday.com
Over 120 years of magazine archives plus full access to all of CT’s online archives
Learn more […]

God's Love

The 700 Club – July 5, 2021

Gallatin, Tennessee

“The first time I heard about COVID we were in a staff meeting at church, at Gallatin First United Methodist Church in Gallatin, Tennessee. The administration from the Bishop’s office had sent down some recommendations of how to prepare for this pandemic that we were about to experience,” says James Story, a retired high school and college music professor in Tennessee, who began feeling ill in March of 2020. […]

God's Love

The 700 Club – July 6, 2021

AM 4:08

“I put my hand on the counter to steady myself,” said Maurice, “And that’s when it felt like something was happening in my head – like a transformer explodes, it felt like something exploded in my head.”

May 3rd 2019, Maurice Hilliard was going back to bed after using the bathroom, but then…

“Felt sparks coming all through my head and I was totally out of control,” Maurice said. “I screamed and I fell to the floor.”

Maurice’s wife Earlene remembers. […]

God's Love

The 700 Club – July 13, 2021

The Christian Broadcasting Network
CBN is a global ministry committed to preparing the nations of the world for the coming of Jesus Christ through mass media. Using television and the Internet, CBN is proclaiming the Good News in 149 countries and territories, with programs and content in 67 languages.
If you have an immediate prayer need, please call our 24-hour prayer line at 800-700-7000. CBN’s ministry is made possible by the support of our CBN Partners. […]

God's Love

The 700 Club – July 12, 2021

“She explained to me that within an hour, I would expire if I didn’t allow myself to be ventilated and I said, ‘No, I’m not,’ because I looked at the statistics, and at the time six out of seven COVID patients going on the ventilator, we’re not ever coming off,” David Johnson says. 

In March 2020, David, a sportswriter who covers Ole Miss football for CBS Sports, attended a conference in Nashville. […]