Bill Sweeney | Unshakable Hope
Author Archives: Bill Sweeney	
As most of my regular readers know, I have been battling ALS for 24 years. I was diagnosed in 1996, just weeks after turning thirty-six. How’s that for a birthday gift? The neurologist over the ALS Clinic in Houston, Texas, told me that I had 3-5 years to live. This relentless disease progressed pretty much how the neurologist predicted it would—except for the part about my dying within five years.
Ten months after being diagnosed, because of some painful and embarrassing falls and my voice beginning to sound like I had a few too many, I was forced to resign from the job I loved as a Regional Sales Manager in the grocery industry. I finally figured out that it probably wasn’t a good reflection on the company to have a salesman walking funny and slurring his words. When I finally resigned, my boss was probably thinking, “It’s about time!”.
Mary and I took a much-needed vacation to Hawaii the month after I resigned. The day before leaving, I tripped walking across the living room and broke my clavicle. Another painful fall, but because I was alone in the room, at least it wasn’t embarrassing. I fought hard not to use a wheelchair, and I have scars to show for it. I called that a “fight of faith”, but the truth is, it was just pride. Pride is a deceptive foe who enjoys dressing up as good and godly virtues.
As I mentioned, the course of ALS went as the neurologist predicted it would. Walking and talking became a slow and deliberate process. Typing on my computer, even pecking away with one finger, soon became impossible. Even worse, I lost my ability to turn the pages of a book. That was a tough loss—no more reading my Bible in the morning or reading books throughout the day. Before upgrading to this kind of computer that uses a camera to track my eye movements, I used a system that tracked a little silver dot on my forehead. I then discovered a little online startup company named Amazon, which sold a limited selection of e-books, including the Bible, which I was able to download. I also bought a Bible software on CD. I’m so thankful for the technology that allows me to carry on.
Over the last twenty-four years, I spent a lot of time figuring out what this thing we call faith is. With a death sentence hanging over my head, I thought it was a good time to figure this faith thing out.
The first and most important thing I discovered is that I’d never have strong faith until I understood God’s true nature. We get to know God’s nature by reading His word. For example, Galatians chapter five gives us some of the characteristics of His nature and tells us that if we are Christ’s disciples, we should be becoming more and more like Him:
“The fruit of the Spirit (God’s nature) is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…” (Galatians 5:22-23).
But this raises a question: if God is love, kind, good, faithful, and gentle, why did He allow me, a hard-working husband and father with two young daughters to support, to get ALS?
Even worse, my daughter and son-in-law are friends with three Christian couples who have little boys (ages 5, 6, and 7) battling cancer. What’s up with that?
For the follower of Christ, God is our Heavenly Father. If God is our Father and His nature is as good as the Bible tells us, why would He allow His children to get these horrible diseases or die in tragic accidents?
I’ve concluded that none of this is His will for humanity!
Simple. I took a peek at the end of The Book, which reveals God’s will:
“I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:3-4).
God’s will is for no more mourning, no more crying, no more pain, and no more death!
However, for a short time longer, we are still living in a fallen world. Jesus suffered, died, and rose from the dead to end everything that is not God’s will. It’s a fait accompli—a done deal!
“The last enemy that will be abolished is death.” (1 Corinthians 15:26).
That’s right; death is God’s enemy! Also, everything that causes crying, mourning, and pain are His enemies too. God hates these enemies so much that He sent His only begotten Son as a sacrifice to put an end to them. This is the Good News I discovered in 1983.
If you are a follower of Christ and going through a difficult time right now, don’t lose hope, your Heavenly Father is on your side. The age of miracles has not passed. Mary and I have seen and experienced so many undeniable miracles.
You might ask, “But you’ve had ALS for twenty-four years; why haven’t you been healed?”
I don’t know the answer, but it was discovering that the Lord was in the ring fighting with me that kept me “fighting the good fight of faith.” In addition to His Spirit inside of us, urging us on, He helps us fight by recruiting prayer warriors to help hold us up. He also sends us generous people to help us with any needs we might have. He sends others to encourage us. By these pieces of help coming together, His grace becomes sufficient. What we call “our trial” is not just about us if we’re followers of Christ.
To those of you who have been in this fight with us, Mary and I are eternally thankful for you.
“When this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. “O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?” (1 Corinthians 15:54-55).
Tags: ALS, Bible, Cancer, Christian, Christianity, Depression, encouragement, Faith, God, Hope, Jesus, MND
Due to the pandemic, many in America and other parts of the world are living in isolation. As someone who has been living as a hermit due to ALS for more than twenty years, it didn’t take this pandemic for me to discover that living like a fugitive in a hideout isn’t good for you emotionally or spiritually. Living in isolation isn’t good for us physically, either. From what I’ve read, people are abusing food, alcohol, and drugs more often.
The Bible also tells us that isolation is not God’s plan for mankind. The first observation that God made after creating man was, “It is not good for the man to be alone…” (Genesis 2:18). He told Adam and Eve to be “fruitful and multiply.” God made us for fellowship with Himself and with others who are living for Him.
It didn’t take long for Adam and Eve to mess up God’s original plan. The very next chapter records the “fall of man.” Their disobedience introduced mankind to shame, fear, pain, sickness, blaming God and others for our wrongs, deception, spiritual and physical death, and hiding from God–the worst kind of isolation there is.
With a few exceptions, things went downhill from there. But then Jesus, “the second Adam,” came to show us how we can get everything back that the first Adam lost. He paired up His disciples and gave them the “Great Commission”:
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20).
Jesus never sent one of His followers out alone, not even on a simple errand. The only instance I can find of a disciple going out alone is when Judas went to betray Jesus. The night Jesus was arrested, Peter was encircled by an angry mob and didn’t have another disciple with him. When pressed three times, he denied being a follower of Jesus. When a lion hunts, it tries to isolate a weak member of a herd. I wonder if Peter was thinking about that night as he wrote this:
“Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8).
I didn’t attend church for three months after making a commitment to follow Christ in 1983. I still believed the “most Christians are hypocrites” lie. I was afraid that if I went to church, their hypocrisy might rub off on me. I set an all-time speed record for going from unworthy sinner to self-righteous hypocrite. Meeting in my small apartment, the Church of Me, Myself, and I wasn’t working out very well, and the pastor was not very good, either.
“Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment.” (Proverbs 18:1).
“Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up…And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12).
The grandmother of a friend invited me to church and lunch after at their home. I agreed to go. Living in Texas, eleven hundred miles from my mother’s cooking in Illinois, the offer of a home-cooked meal was too good to pass up. I kept going back to that church and made many good friends, including my best friend, who I married thirty-five years ago this month.
There are hypocrites attending church, of course, but, from what I’ve observed, most of the people I used to classify as hypocrites are just churchgoers or sincere believers saying or doing something un-Christian. Regardless, the Great Commission is not merely for us to attend church, but for us to become disciples of Christ and to disciple others.
Because ALS has rendered me homebound, I haven’t been able to attend church in years. I miss going to church. Sadly, many of you now know what it’s like to be without your church family. With the death, economic destruction, political division, and the closing of churches and relief organizations, COVID-19 looks as if it was stirred together in a cauldron by demons over the flames of hell.
He is still on His throne. He is still assisting Christ’s disciples in fulfilling the Great Commission. And He is also working through them to meet the needs of the poor and suffering.
“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:23-25).
I know it must sound crazy to those who are not followers of Christ, but many of us believe that we are living in the last days. As the above passage tells us, it’s vital for disciples of Christ to gather together and strengthen one another’s faith. The passage ends by telling us that this is even more important as we “see the Day drawing near.” You don’t have to be a theologian to figure out that “the Day” is Judgment Day.
It’s great to attend church, but, as we now know, this option can be taken away. In these difficult days, be intentional to surround yourself with strong disciples. With COVID, we might have to get creative and meet over Facetime, Skype, or Zoom. You don’t need a large group; two or three will do.
“For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.” (Matthew 18:20).
(Friends, I have been AWOL from the blogging world the last month or so. I have missed interacting with you. I have been dealing with breathing and exhaustion issues. As most of you know, I type with an eye-tracking computer. I’ve discovered that I have to keep my eyelids open for the computer to work :-)).