Lou Gehrig’s Disease and the Christian

Early this morning, I downloaded five podcasts, entitled “Living with Lou Gehrig’s disease, from Dr. Gene Getz’s 15-minute daily radio program, Renewal Radio. The title of this week’s program (October 8???15) immediately caught my attention because my own father died as a result of Lou Gehrig’s disease about 11 years ago. In the five interviews, Dr. Getz interviews a medical doctor who has had Lou Gehrig’s disease since 1998 and is almost completely paralyzed today.

The common name, Lou Gehrig’s disease, often associated with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is derived from the famous New York Yankee baseball player who was diagnosed with this disease while he was still playing first base for the Yankees in the 1930s. ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that influences the nerve cells in the brain and spinal column.

My father, Robert V. McCabe, Sr., was diagnosed with this disease in the early summer of 1995. A little more than a year later, late August of 1996, he died as a result of it. For two weeks in the summer of 1995 and again in the summer of 1996, I flew to his home in Waxahachie, Texas in order to spend time with him and my step-mother, Sally McCabe. It was heart-wrenching, over those four weeks, to watch my dad suffer with this disease and progressively lose the use of his body as he dies. Though my father had periods of great discouragement, the Lord was faithful in preserving his faith. My step-mother, whose first husband had been a strong Presbyterian pastor of my home church and died from cancer in the early 1970s, showed her typical godly patience in taking care of my dad until his death.

Dr. Lanier’s testimony of handling ALS, since he initially diagnosed it himself in 1998, is both informative and edifying. In an era when a theology of suffering is marginalized and neglected, Dr. Lanier’s testimony calls us to embrace Christ’s lordship in the midst of suffering. Check out “Living with Lou Gehrig’s Disease” and may God grant us the faith that perseveres in the good and bad times of life (Eccl 7:13-14, ESV).

This entry was posted on Monday, October 8th, 2007 at 8:18 am and is filed under