Lessons Learned in the Valley
Chuck Sligh
May 2004
BIBLE READING: Psalm 23
TEXT: Psalm 23:4 – “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou [art] with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”
INTRODUCTION
Several years ago (1979), I went to the hospital for surgery. After the surgery, my doctor came to my wife in the waiting room and told her that I had six weeks to live. It was CANCER!
For the next few months I was in a deep, deep valley of trials which I thought would never end. After traveling through that valley, as I journeyed to higher peaks, I was able to look back and learn some lessons from the valley. That’s why my message is titled, “Lessons Learned in the Valley.” I want to share with you today my testimony of trials and their benefit in my life.
Yes, there ARE benefits in trials. Lester Roloff used to say, “Don’t fret in your valleys. Farm them.” So I want to share with you a little of the crop I’ve harvested of lessons learned in the valley.
I. ENTERING THE VALLEY
Before the cancer episode, God was already leading us through a period of trials over a period of eighteen months.
Various trials:
--Susan’s father died.
--Six weeks later – Chris born by Caesarian section.
--Six weeks later – Susan’s grandfather died.
--Church difficulties – Most of it was grossly exaggerated slander. But the seed of truth cut to the heart. But the biggest heartache was the fact that some of our dearest friends deserted us in our time of greatest need.
--In all of this, Susan and I were experiencing strains in our relationship.
--Then came the cancer.
--After my recovery from cancer, when we returned to the church, and seeing that our ministry was through there, I resigned my position at the church.
--Unemployed for six weeks because no church opened up for us, causing us to spend all of what little savings we had and sending us into financial hardship.
--When it became apparent that no ministry might become available right away, I took a job working at a grain elevator for six more weeks.
--The financial hardships became worse because we had no more savings and the job I had did not pay enough to meet our expenses.
II. GOING THROUGH THE VALLEY
I went into the hospital and the doctor discovered that I had cancer. He told Susan that I had six weeks to live and that she should get things in order for my imminent death. However, the specific diagnosis was not absolutely certain. There were three possibilities: Teratoma, Carcinoma or Seminoma, Seminoma being the least likely, but least dangerous. The problem was that they could not start any treatment until they determined positively the type of cancer. It took six weeks to determine definitely the correct type of cancer. By that time I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD.
During the waiting time, we became exposed to alternative treatments and decided to go on a non-traditional cancer treatment called the Gerson Therapy. Susan’s aunt offered to let us stay with them in Kentucky and do the therapy and to pay for all the expenses! At the time I started on the Gerson Therapy, I was in very poor condition. I was very sickly. I was very weak. When I returned to work, I was running two miles a day and I felt wonderful!
The Gerson Therapy—at times, worse than the disease!---
--Thirteen freshly made vegetable juices a day.
--A food supplement program.
--A special diet –
--No meat, eggs, pork, poultry, milk products, oil, salt, pepper, spices, sugar, flour, or bread.
--Nothing canned, packaged, salted, treated, processed or frozen.
--It included only selected organic fruits and vegetables.
--Coffee enemas three to ten times daily.
--Raw liver juice! (Yes, you heard right, and yes, it was as gross as it sounds. Fortunately, in later years, research showed that desiccated liver pills did just as good as the liver juice and they discontinued the juice!)
The therapy caused me to have what they called “reactions.” These were when the therapy caused the body to rid itself rapidly of toxins and poisons. They caused me to become extremely sick. They also caused acute depression, making me suicidal. I finally survived it and followed up for several years on the “maintenance diet.”
III. LESSONS LEARNED IN THE VALLEY
1. I learned that life is short.
EXPAND ON SCRIPTURES AS LED:
Proverbs 27:1 – “Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.” – I truly did not know if I had hope of living from one day to the next.
James 4:14 – “Whereas ye know not what [shall be] on the morrow. For what [is] your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”
2. I learned that time is running out.
EXPAND AS LED:
Ephesians 5:15-16 – “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, 16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”
3. I learned money and material things are not really important. Only what is laid up in heaven is what really counts.
When I found out that I had cancer and I thought that I only had six weeks to live, money and the pursuit of making it, all of a sudden receded into insignificance. Now, there were more important matters on my mind.
4. I learned the inestimable value of my wife
Susan stood by me every step of the way.
--When we left our home in Springfield to go to Lexington to do the therapy, there was not a single complaint from her.
--She made my juices when I was too sick to make them for myself—thirteen each day, requiring much preparation and cleanup.
--She prepared all my food for me, which was totally different from a separate meal she prepared for her aunt’s family.
--She comforted me when I was depressed and suicidal, and did not return in kind when I was selfish and mean spirited because of the toxins affecting my mind.
--She cleaned up after me when I was sick.
--She was my life preserver in a sea of despair.
--I came to see as never before what the writer of Proverbs 31 meant when he said, “Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.” (Proverbs 31:10)
5. I learned the importance of loving, caring Christian friends.
I was in Lexington, Kentucky, without our friends. It was a lonely experience.
6. I learned God has a job for me.
God wasn’t through with me yet. He still had a ministry for me to do in Durham, North Carolina. He still had work for me to do for Him on deputation to be a missionary. He still had a job for me to do in Wiesbaden, Germany, and Bicester, Englad, and wherever else the Lord may lead us in the future.
And He does for you too. (EXPAND AS LED)
7. I learned a greater sensitivity to the needs of people.
I grew up as a military brat and later my dad was a missionary to the military. When I was growing up, I never was exposed much to suffering. When someone got too sick, they shipped them back to the States when we lived overseas, or to a bigger hospital somewhere else in the U.S. I had never been to a funeral until I was a sophomore in college! Because of this, when I entered the ministry, I had a very hard time dealing with hospital visitation.
However, after going through it myself, I could relate to sick people better and the Lord blessed that aspect of my ministry. Note 2 Corinthians 1:4 – “Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.”
8. I learned trials have a purpose.
Note three reasons for suffering:
a. Corrective Suffering
Hebrews 12:5-7 – “And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: 6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?”
Hebrews 12:11 – “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.”
b. Constructive Suffering – Psalm 119:67 – “Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.”
c. Crowning Suffering – John 9:3 – “Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.”
