GOD brings beautiful things out of hard places. I know. I’ve been there many times. One of the first began long ago.  The polio epidemic raged through Canada and in the spring of 1951 I came down with the dreaded disease. Between the late 1940s and early 1950s, polio crippled around 35,000 people each year in the United States alone, making it one of the most feared diseases of the twentieth century. In 1952, nearly 60,000 children were infected with the virus; thousands were paralyzed, and more than 3,000 died.

Just as I began to get better, my baby brother and my Daddy came down with it too. The hospitals were full and after diagnosis Mommy cared for us at home. We miraculously survived without obvious paralysis and life went on—bump after bump. Some bumps resulted from a polio compromised nervous system. Most polio survivors share a commonality—Type A personalities characterized by a strong will and determination not only to survive but to thrive. Yet, even for non-paralytics, polio attacks nerve bundles throughout the body, causing the unaffected nerves to work twice as hard. Therefore, after many years, many polio survivors find themselves with post-polio syndrome, which puts them back in wheelchairs and braces because when life comes down hard, a back-up system no longer exists.

However, none of us realized the compromise at the time so life did go on, yet with unexplained fatigue and exhaustion with minimal activity, muscle weakness, breathing and swallowing problems, greater sensitivity to cold and heat, loud noises, caffeine, and medications. Many also experienced a decreased tolerance for physical or emotional pain, less ability to multi-task, more easily overwhelmed, more sleep disturbances, and a need to often withdraw to find relief from stimulation. Our performance became worse under pressure and we became more susceptible to other illnesses related to a highly sensitive nervous system.

I nearly drowned twice, once at our youth group lake retreat, and once in college swim class. When I reached my limit, no second wind rescued me. Running, uphill hiking, or even day-to-day living pressures found no back-up system to push me through. I didn’t realize what was wrong with me and figured I just had to try harder, which abused my nervous system. Through each life challenge, I just kept my determined course. By the time the first of my four children entered college, news of post polio syndrome made me realize the drastic affect of polio even for non-paralytics.

As I look back now, I can see God used my polio to cast me upon Himself. I always wondered why my mother worried about my health, as if it was fragile somehow. She knew. . . but denial blinded me as a young person. As the years went by,  I admitted that my spirit was stronger than my body. When my weakness became more difficult to ignore, I found myself turning to the Lord for His strength. Sleepless nights, because of over-stimulation during the day, began my time to draw near to the Lord through prayer journaling. There, in the dim lamplight I cried out to Him, listened to His Holy Spirit speak to me through His Word, and recorded our conversations in scores of spiral notebooks.

He turned my weakness into strength—the strength to have to admit I could not go on, I could not succeed, I could not survive or thrive without Him—a kind of severe mercy. I thank Him now for my polio. I thank Him for writing down all the days of my life in His book before one of them came to be (Psa. 139:36). He has become my strength. He redeems my hard places over and over by calling me to Himself in my weakness and allowing me to see His strength and beauty there!

LORD, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure…It is God who arms me with strength and keeps my way secure…God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Psa. 16:5; 18:32; 46:1