NRB Chronicals 2022- Your Eyes Saw

NRB, we call this the NRB Chronicles because, you know, this is 2022 and God's doing a whole lot of stuff.

And really cool, He's done a lot of things for a lot of folks. And every single day I get to hear amazing stories of how God has brought situations that seem like I couldn't face it a billion years, like the last thing I would ever want to happen in my life. And then I see how God's brought these other people in and through that. And so we get to see, like, I want everybody listening to know that whatever has happened in your life, it's like 2 Corinthians chapter one is going to come true.

Like it's going to God, the comfort, the God of all comfort is going to comfort you with the comfort that you've been comforted with. And so such is the case as we actually have a friend of the Epperson family, because Stu went to Bob Jones University, if you didn't know that. Yes I did.

And one of his professors wife is Brenda Lurty. Am I saying that right? Yes. And Brenda has quite a story that I know you're going to be blessed.

I think you may end up crying with me, but it's okay. Because, you know, in order for our faith to be where God wants it to be, we've got to walk through some stuff in life, right Brenda? Right.

And so maybe to just let the cat out of the bag right from the beginning so people can relate. Is Brenda lost her son? Yes. And how old was he when you lost him? He was 16.

He had just turned 16. Wow. In her book, it's called Your Eyes Saw, again, a beautiful picture of of Brenda and her son. And of course we get to go on the journey with her today for a few minutes, but in hopes that you'll pick up this book, especially for people that you know that have lost a child and are in this journey like man. I mean, here's an opportunity for you to journey with with Brenda and I as she shares that story.

So Brenda, what happened? So, when Todd was 15 years old, we were on an extended family trip to Disney, and he came into my room and he said, Mom, my side hurts. And I immediately felt panic.

I don't know why I would, but I just said, Oh, well, maybe you got banged around on the ride. Well, when we got home, it still hurt. So and he had lost about 15 pounds.

He's pretty skinny anyway. And we took him to the doctor. And the doctor ordered an x ray and said, I see something.

And then we went to a specialist. And he said, I want him to have a CT scan. And he said, I see a tumor. And I said, Do you think it's cancer? And he said, Yes, I do.

And I fell apart, really fell apart. And this tumor was where? This tumor was located around his vena cava. Oh, there you go. The old vena cava.

I have no idea. And I imagine most people listening, what's a vena cava? It's, I think it's one of the largest arteries going to your heart. Oh, wow.

I could be wrong. I'm not a doctor, but it was bad. And so we had a biopsy. And I remember praying, Okay, Lord, these doctors are not saved. This is how you'll get the glory. They'll go in and they won't find it. Everybody was praying.

They wouldn't even find it. Okay, you're going to get the glory, God. And they went in and found it. And I was like, Okay, all right, Lord. So now what you will do, Lord, is they found out that it was cancer.

And I said, Okay, Lord, now you'll get the glory because you'll heal him. Well, in three weeks, the tumor had doubled in size, very dangerous. So let me take the people into this, if you don't mind, just a minute, because I'm a cancer survivor. And I had lymphoma. And one of the things that you're really not expecting when you get this diagnosis is you are now in the world's largest waiting game.

You're waiting for the next test, the next biopsy, the next whatever. And so here you've gone from, I'm a mom, and I've got to, you know, until all of a sudden we're in a complete, like, world change. And now, all of a sudden, everybody, you are now no longer just Brenda, but you're – and so everybody is asking you, not how's Brenda doing, right? They're asking, is it Jason? Todd. Todd. They're asking, How was Todd?

Todd was amazing. And that's what helped me so much. When I fell apart just thinking, Is it cancer? The day the doctor came in and said, It is cancer, I felt the peace that passed this understanding.

And I remember thinking, This is what it feels like. It was an amazing – I didn't fall apart. I had as much peace in my heart then as I do now. And I looked over at Todd and I said, Todd, are you okay?

He said, Yeah, I'm fine. What happened in his life was something I was given a front row seat to, of the peace that passed all understanding in his heart. I never saw him cry about the fact that he had cancer, not once.

Maybe once, I think, when it was back again. But he was amazing, and that comforted my heart to see God taking care of him. So, wow. So you got that, and then the tumor doubled. And so now you're really, like – What are you doing, God? You're supposed to show your glory. How do you get the glory if it's even worse?

So we went to MUSC in Charleston, and the transplant team removed a football-sized tumor, his right kidney, part of his liver, gallbladder. And I was like, Okay, now you have the glory, God. And then January it's back.

What are you doing, God? Right. So this had started in – October 24th. October 24th. So – and boy, this is the fastest four months of your life, right? October, November, December, that Christmas?

Right. At Christmas, the tumor, they had removed it. And I thought, Okay, now we heal, and life will go on. We'll be fine.

But in January, when it's back, then it's like, What are you doing, God? I thought we had a plan. And then just we tried to get him into St. Jude.

We tried in Boston. And when all hope was gone, I said, Okay, Lord, there's nothing we can do but trust you that you will do a miracle and remove this tumor. And then he died. And then it's like, Who are you, God? I don't even know who you are. You did not – everybody was praying, This is the way you get the glory if you heal them.

What are you doing? Right, right. You get the picture.

Your husband is a professor at Bob Jones University, right? Right. There's no way that this is going to happen here because this was such an opportunity. Yeah, we prayed. So you answer our prayers. If we say heal, then you heal.

And that's not the way it was. So it was having to find out who he was and coming in to realize that I don't get to put God in my football huddle and call the shots. He is true to who he says he is. He's not who I make him out to be.

He is who he says he is. And I am learning that. How long ago was it?

In two months it will be nine years. But I learned that Todd's days were determined. That's why the book is called Your Eyes Saw. Your eyes saw my unformed substance. In your book were written every one of them the days that were formed for me.

When as yet there were none of them. And I learned that God had already determined his days. And cancer didn't cut his life short. It was only ever going to be until May 10th. And that was life changing for me to realize that all of our days are numbered. And we can't lengthen them.

We can't shorten them. God has those days numbered. And I thought of Lazarus in the midst of my journey. Lord, why would you heal him and not heal Todd? You know, they prayed and you healed him. Why wouldn't you heal Todd?

And there was more that I had to learn. God waited to come to heal Lazarus because the people had, the Jewish people had to see that there was a dead man that God literally raised to life. And they wouldn't have seen them if he had come right away.

They would have thought, well he was just a sleeper in a coma. But God had to take a dead man to raise to life for them to know this is really the resurrection and the life. And even in that verse Jesus wept, I realized that God took no delight in my pain. He wept with the people at the tomb of Lazarus even knowing what he was about to do because he saw their pain. And he took no pleasure in taking Todd but he had things to teach me and far reaching things more than I'll ever get to see that I don't even see that God is possibly doing. And I think of the book of Job and how Job never knew why he was suffering but there was a conversation that took place between God and Satan that Job didn't know about.

And there was many things Job had to learn about who God is. So you went, here's this dark, dark light. Very dark. He's gone.

Right. It's dark. I'm mad at you God, don't talk to me.

What turned the light? One day I went to Todd's grave and I plopped down and I said, Lord, why did you heal him in Charleston if you were just going to take him away? I thought, you're so mean. And it was like God said, to give you time. And that realization of all that we got to do as a family from that surgery in November until the time he died, I thought, you did give us time. Like he could have just taken him back in November but he gave us the gift of time. And at that point I started listening, like, what else do you have to teach me, Lord?

But I mean, after he died, there was some darkness there. But again, when I realized that Todd's days were numbered, I thought, okay, you didn't have to give him to me at all. I got to be his mom. Like, what a privilege to be his mom for 16 years. And so I started to be grateful for the time.

And then I was ready to listen, like, well, what else do you have to teach me, Lord? And what a great invitation to her book, okay? Because when I looked at the titles of the chapters, the one that just jumped out at me, because I'm a huge amusement park fan, like, you know, you saw it happen, started at Disney World. One of her chapters is Bollywood.

Yes. And so, obviously, you're celebrating the time through the book with the reader. I'm always thinking about listeners. That's part of how God walked you through what he actually was doing. He gave us many opportunities to meet people and just bring joyful memories that our family could draw upon. That was just really precious that we got to meet her and some other nice people.

And just God brought a lot of joy in the midst of hard times. The book, again, is called Your Eyes Saw, and the author is Brenda Lurty. And, you know, it's really a cool thing when you write a book, like, there's one chapter that you can hardly wait, right, for the reader, like, man, I can hardly wait until they see this, okay?

What is that? I want people to know that at the very end, when Todd died, that peace was there. And in that moment of his passing, I was holding his hand, and I had been talking to him.

I wanted the assurance. A lot of people said, you know, when he passes, as he's going, he'll see angels and hear music and all this, and none of that was happening. I kept asking him, and he was kind of, he wasn't in a coma. He would answer once in a while, but the last thing I said to him was, Todd, do you see Jesus?

And he said, not yet. And I was holding his hand, and a few moments later, I started to hear the death rattle, and it lasted maybe 30 seconds. And right before the death rattle started, we were holding hands, and he took his thumbs, and he rubbed them over mine, like, once or twice, not like jerky, but just very deliberate. And after he passed, and then he died, and I felt like in that moment that he was telling me, I see him now. And I love that as I think of it now, because he was giving me that assurance and saying goodbye to me when that was his moment.

He was probably in terrible pain or whatever, but he said goodbye to me, and let me know, I see him now. And so I love that part, and I'll never forget that goodbye to God let us have. So there you get a feel of the book for people that are going through this kind of thing that we don't understand on the side.

But God provides comfort, and I'm sure you hear that in Brenda's voice. And again, the book is Your Eyes. And have you got a website?

Or how do people get it? Amazon and barnesandnoble.com. It's all online. Well, thank you. Advantage Books is the publisher. All right, wonderful, wonderful.

Your Eyes Saw. Thank you. Thank you. God bless.