Immanuel -- Christmas Newsletter

This Christmas season, I have been thinking a lot about “Immanuel.”   I have known for a long time the Hebrew translation of this word is “God with us,” and as a Christian, I believe that Immanuel is Jesus, the Messiah, foretold in the prophecies of Isaiah, the one we celebrate at Christmas and throughout the year.  My life is filled with examples of knowing that God is with me, but this year it has been abundantly apparent.  

If you had asked me a year ago what my two greatest skills are my answers would have been public speaking and writing.  So, in a year when one of my greatest strengths became my greatest weakness through an adult onset speech impediment, ending with a solution through Parkinson’s medication, I know that God with me in the midst of this struggle is how I persevered. Here are some examples of Immanuel in my life this year, as included in the pictured newsletter below.

• Most mornings when I hated the way I sounded and dreaded going to work to hear myself speak all day, I was able to push through and drag myself out of bed.

• Every restaurant worker, every phone representative, every service personnel I came into contact with in this entire year was patient, sympathetic, and understanding…as they waited for me to get the words out.  

• My co-workers rallied to cover my classes to help me make all the doctor and speech therapy appointments.  My administrators used my struggle as an opportunity to regularly affirm my teaching performance and me personally.

• My students were gracious, patient, and unbelievably sensitive.

• My closest friends became even closer, grieving with me and celebrating my little victories: leaving a voicemail, ordering a coffee without repeated syllables, insurance coverage wins.

• A new primary care physician took up my cause and encouraged me to continue to fight for a solution through new specialists. Her sincerity and encouragement is a big part of why my fluency is back, along with the neurologist who was willing to try a new use for an old drug.

• A speech therapist, with just the right combination of specialties, was “randomly” assigned to my case.  The first session looking at flash cards and trying to say simple words like “horse” and “ball” was one of the saddest and most humbling days of my adult life, but I left hopeful and improved in her care.

• This year, there just happened to be a major motion picture out that won an Academy Award about the story of a King and his speech impediment that spoke about my struggle in a powerful way.  

• Throughout this year, I have been involved in a spiritual formation program (learning and leading others) that at every turn helped me stay focused on an eternal perspective, including reading a pivotal book “Is God to Blame?” by Gregory A. Boyd at just the right time.

• When I felt trapped in the struggle to verbally communicate, I rediscovered my love for sharing my thoughts and feelings through writing.  

• A summer trip with my bro to see people and places from our pasts was joyful and soul-filling, breaking through the sadness.  

(Continued below)

This year I experienced what Boyd talks about in “Is God to Blame?” -- “The peace that God gives can be experienced in the midst of events that are not part of God’s plan.  It’s an abiding tranquility we experience even while resisting and revolting against circumstances contrary to God’s plan.  It’s joy that does not waiver even though we live in an environment where Satan is god.  It’s the peace of knowing that though creation is ripped by cosmic war, God will be victorious over evil in the end.”

May you and your family know His peace this holiday season and in the New Year.  Thanks for being with me on the journey! God Bless, Mark