Latest / Real Life Theology Podcast / Hard Conversations in Light of Eternity | David Young

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Hard Conversations in Light of Eternity | David Young · Real Life Theology Podcast

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  Welcome back, everyone, to the Real Life Theology podcast. This episode features
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  David Young talking a little bit about some of his personal story and
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  testimony. Here's the episode.
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  There was nothing I couldn't do Tuesday morning, March the 8th.
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  Nothing. I could run a 5k or a 10k, go backpacking 20 miles, work 80 hours, and
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  still kick down the gates of hell. The only thing I couldn't do was stop
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  coughing. And so we went in to see my PA, who's a friend of mine, and she said,
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  let's get a CT just to make sure you're okay. And I said, I'm not wasting any money on a CT.
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  So we go down. Insurance won't pay for it. So I told my wife, I said, I'm not paying
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  for this. She said, I'm gonna pay for it. So $600 on their credit card. I went home
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  and went back to work. And at 4 o'clock, the PA called me up and said, hey, we
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  come in at 5 o'clock and let's go over the results of this CT. And I said, hey,
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  just tell me on the phone. I'm kind of busy. And she said, no, I really want you
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  to come in and I'd like you to bring your wife. And everything changed. She
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  said, you have two aneurysms that are both widowmakers on your aorta
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  descending. I would send you to the emergency room right now, but we have a
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  cardiologist who's gonna see you in the morning. You have a spot on your spine. We
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  don't know what it is, but it looks like cancer. There's something growing on your
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  thyroid. It's very concerning. You have six tumors in your lungs and you have a
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  seven centimeter mass on your left kidney that I'm quite sure is going to
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  turn out to be cancer. Go home. Try to rest. I've got you set up with an
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  oncologist and a cardiologist tomorrow and prepare to go to the hospital. Wow.
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  That's a whole lot, really. And I'm here to tell you what I learned. And so here
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  you go. Like it or not, you're gonna get it. The first thing I learned is that
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  life is lived, but more than that it's spent. And one day it will all be spent.
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  Because I believed in mortality. I just didn't believe in my mortality. I
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  believed in your mortality. I was pretty sure you were gonna die. Because I've
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  been at bedsides. I've held hands of people who died. I've done their funerals.
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  Family members die. I knew about death. And I went home that day and realized,
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  you know, I may well be dead in six months. In fact, we found out that the
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  tumor I have on the kidney, which is now gone, was seven centimeters on March the
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  8th. On April the 8th it was 14 centimeters. So even though I'm a
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  theologian, I became a mathematician really quickly. And I realized that I had
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  less than three months to live at that rate. By the way, when they told me
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  I have a seven centimeter tumor, he says it's about the size of a lemon. And I
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  realized, he looked at me, said, there's no way this guy's gonna understand
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  centimeters. Let's talk in food language. You'll get that. And so here's the deal.
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  When you live with a massive exclamation point in front of your life, like all of
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  a sudden everything gets really serious. And it did for me. I've had three major
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  surgeries. I've been in the hospital I don't know how many times now. A couple
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  weeks ago I was in for eight days. My only surviving kidney had started to
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  fail and it was a miserable mess. By the way, I'm taking some great treatments but I'm
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  having a reaction to them and I'm immune compromised. So that's why I can have
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  that's why I have to parachute in and helicopter out. Forgive me for that
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  because this is an important thing to me. But I have to keep a bubble around me for
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  right now. Here's the second thing I learned which is really similar to that.
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  By the way, one of the most important people in my life right now is Jim
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  Putman who has never minced words. And so I want to dedicate this next point to
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  Jim. Your best theology, the best theology you'll ever do will be done on your butt.
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  That's where it'll be. Because when you fall on your butt, you suddenly have to
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  think to yourself, is this really real? I'm embarrassed to tell you that for the
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  first four weeks of this diagnosis, I was a pretty faithless guy. I didn't
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  know that about myself. I never asked the question why. I'm not against that
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  question, but it never dawned on me. I always figured, well, if anybody's gonna
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  die a nasty death, it should be me. That didn't bug me. I'll tell you what did bug
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  me. What bugged me was I couldn't suddenly find God. All I could think of
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  was this has all been a big hoax. There is no resurrection. I'm gonna die
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  eaten by worms. They're gonna celebrate my life for one day. They're gonna all go
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  to lunch, eat Mexican food, and I'm history after that. Honestly, for four
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  weeks, I was not a person you wanted to talk to. I was not a person of faith. I
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  really wasn't. And then all of a sudden, it's as though God said, let me just
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  remind you, not only the truthfulness of this, because I believed it. I'm a real
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  believer, but of the power of it and of the beauty of it. And suddenly everything
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  that ever mattered became so crystal clear and so beautiful to me that I had
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  never been more persuaded. I've never been more joyful. I am the happiest man
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  in this room. I guarantee you I'm the happiest man in this room, because I am
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  certain that everything God ever promised is true and beautiful, and it's
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  gonna happen, and I'm gonna be one of the first ones to see it. Just this. Whenever
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  you are on your butt, you will find the answers you're looking for if you talk
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  to him. And number three, the best time to start doing what really matters in
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  ministry was yesterday. The second best time is today. I'm really glad that God
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  had gotten my attention a few years before. Our church went through a really
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  rough time. By the way, it was... I'll just stop. I'm gonna keep moving. I'm watching my
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  timer. I'm gonna do something I've never done before, which is stop a minute
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  early. About ten years ago, we just... our church went through a rough time. Most of
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  the staff, we were ready to leave. We were writing our resumes, and then we just
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  kind of got the staff together. It was a smaller staff at the time, and just said,
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  you know what? We are not going to let Satan have a victory over this church.
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  And somehow or another, I don't know how it happened, the Lord just said, okay, the
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  two things I want you to do are make disciples and plant churches. Two things
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  we knew nothing about, but somehow or another, I stumbled into an exponential
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  conference. I had never heard of it before, and the first two speakers I heard
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  were two guys I'd never heard of before, Jim Putman and Bobby Harrington. And I
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  actually contacted Bobby after that and said, hey, what's the chance of you
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  discipling me? And it was a fantastic phone call. We ought to share that
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  someday, Bobby. And all of a sudden, God started working miracles. By the way,
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  Renee led the process at North Boulevard. And disciple making, church planting,
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  that we knew nothing about it, started to become this thing for us. And God
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  started bringing people into our world. Shodanke Johnson is one of the guys God
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  brought into our world. We had never heard of him. I said, I didn't know what he was
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  doing. And all of a sudden, like last week, I think our guy over at church planting
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  said, yeah, we just finished our 750th church plant this week. And I'm just
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  thinking, I am so glad that we were doing that instead of managing the church
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  cruise ship the last 10 years of my life. And that we could say something,
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  something we did was worth it. In fact, I got to tell you this. I get the diagnosis
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  on March the 8th. We were trying to raise five million dollars for church planting.
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  Some of the campuses we were developing said they needed some
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  investment. And then really trying to make disciple making the main thing. We
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  asked them for five million. Giving Sunday was March 13. I got my diagnosis on March
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  8 and was told, you're not going to church this Sunday. So just put yourself
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  in that position. You know, we went through this pandemic. Everything was
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  dangling. I had no, I did not at all think we would get five million dollars.
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  And I couldn't even be there on the Sunday. We had to videotape me sitting in
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  my office, weeping like a baby saying, please, you know, don't break my heart.
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  I've got cancer and all that. It turns out that is a fantastic strategy. Because
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  the very next week, we got up and announced 12 million dollars for church
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  planting and disciple making. And I'm just saying, what I'm telling you is, I'm
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  so glad that that's what I have been spending my life on. I'm not bragging. But
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  I'm just saying, the best time to do what matters was yesterday. If you didn't do
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  it then, today's the next best time. Now. Because your diagnosis is coming. When
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  that exclamation point is put at the end of your sentence, make it have been
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  worth something. Which leads me to point number four out of six. Not doing so bad.
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  There are a lot of kind people in this world. Be one of them. Let me tell you
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  what happened. I'm insured. My deductible is $20,000. That's pretty normal. I get
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  the diagnosis. I said to Julie, we're in trouble. First of all, we don't have
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  $20,000. Not accessible. And then the very next thing that happens is my
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  downstairs air unit went out in March. And the repair was $9,000. The next day,
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  excuse me, the upstairs was $9,000. The next day the downstairs went out and the repair
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  was $13,000. The washer went out the next week and both cars broke down for a
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  total of $2,000 after that. I take two medications called Opdivo and Yervoy.
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  Every time I take them, every three weeks, my bill comes past me. It's not
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  thousands of dollars. And it's not tens of thousands of dollars. And do you know,
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  one of our ministers asked me a couple of weeks ago, do I need to go to the
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  elders and tell them that you need some financial help? And I said, I
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  cannot explain it. We have not missed a dollar in this whole process. Not yet
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  have missed a dollar. I don't need any help. I have no idea where it's coming
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  from except for the kindness of people who just saw us and loved us. I've got a
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  basket of four or five hundred cards. We can't keep up with the food. Every night
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  we've got a freezer on the front porch. I hear it poof. We go out and magic.
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  There's a whole meal sitting there. This has been happening since March the 8th
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  in my life. And I just suddenly have fallen in love with people. I've always
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  liked the idea of people. I just didn't like the real thing. And now I actually
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  like you. Be kind. We go to Vanderbilt. It's one of the best hospitals in the world.
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  They have a whole renal cancer department. My renal cancer doctor, Katie
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  Beckerman, who's a believer, by the way, is a PhD and an MD in renal cancer. She
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  wrote the book for the Center for Disease Control on renal cancer. And she
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  is so kind to me. She told me last time I was there, I pray for you every day by
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  name. And I just think, what a kind world. Every body you meet is fighting a cosmic
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  battle. Be kind. Be prophetic. Be honest. Be truthful. But dadgummit, be kind to
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  people. It's a tough world. Which leads me to number five. Spiritual warfare is
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  real. And you better brace yourself for it. If you grew up in a secessionist
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  church as I did, it's probably time to really kind of reconsider that. Because
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  I'm telling you, there's going to be a time when you're going to face some real
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  demons. And they have real lies to tell you. And their lies are easy to believe.
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  Every day of my life, I wake up and I have two voices in my head. And one of
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  them says, you deserve this. You're going to sit in a hospital situation. Your
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  doctors won't give you opioids because too many people have gotten addicted. So
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  you are going to die a slow and painful death from the six tumors you have in
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  your lungs. And then there's another voice in my head that says, I am King
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  Jesus. And I put my wedding ring on your finger. And I'm going to take care of you.
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  And so I turned to the other voice and I said, you can go to hell. I devote that
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  to you too, Jim, for your honesty. You can go to hell. Because I got a king who's put
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  a ring on my finger who has told me that either way this ends, I'm good. And
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  it's a spiritual battle. I used to hear people say, he died a courageous death of
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  cancer. And I've always thought it's a nice thing. But that's not courage. You don't
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  have any choice. What choice you got? I mean, that's not courage. But now I know
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  what they mean by that. Courage when you have cancer is refusing to get
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  discouraged. Courage is saying, I'm not listening to the voice of a demon who's
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  telling me all these lies from the Satan. I'm not listening to it. It's real. Take it
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  seriously and soak in the beauty of the right voice. And then my last point.
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  Gratitude is the language of heaven. I can't tell you why, but I am the most
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  grateful human being you're ever going to meet. I am today. You see, I joined the
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  cancer club. If you're in the cancer club, you know exactly what I mean. I see the
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  veins of leaves that the rest of you will never see. I see beautiful things
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  that were in front of me all these years that I never saw. And now I see them.
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  Even with God, I feel so blessed to have a God who said to me, get your house in
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  order, David. That's how I feel. My house wasn't in order. Not judging by the
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  doubts I had early on, my house was not in order. I have a God who said, I'm
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  giving you some time. Get your house in order. I sat down, my wife and I, our
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  marriage has never been better. I've never loved my kids more than I love
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  them now. I adore my church. We were talking about retirement. They're going to have to
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  throw me out now. I am the most grateful man, and I realized that's the language
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  of the heavenlies. I am so happy. I just really am. And I realized God was telling
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  me to be grateful all along. You fool, why don't you just do it? Don't wait. Look
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  around you. So I'm grateful, and God has taught me a lot. This morning, I went to
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  see Dr. Brokus, Daniel Brokus. My appointment with him was at 9. He came in
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  at 11. And Johns Hopkins trained urological oncologists who removed my
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  left kidney. So my left kidney's gone. My left adrenal gland's gone. My abdomen
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  looks like a charcuterie board. But this, half of this lung is out. You'd name
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  every orifice I've got's been probed or stuck or whatnot. I mean, you name it,
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  and it's happened now. It's been a rough go. When Brokus did the surgery on April
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  the 8th, I say the 8th, maybe the 12th, I forget. Oh, six weeks later. So it'd be
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  more than that. My wife and daughter were there. It was a serious surgery. They took a
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  kidney out, took an adrenal gland out, and it had doubled. I was in
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  trouble. He's the one who said, hey, I think you need to consider the renal
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  cancer team here. And my daughter said to him, what's my dad's prognosis? And he
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  said, well, you need to talk to your oncologist about that. It's serious. That's what he
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  said. I hadn't seen him since then. I saw him this morning. Came walking. Prince of
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  a man, too, by the way. He said, I just want to tell you something. He looks me
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  over. He's a nice guy, great guy, smart guy. Man, he's smart. Thank God for the miracle
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  science in addition to all the other miracles. He said, you know, I used to be
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  getting a diagnosis of renal cancer. It was pretty much a death sentence. He said,
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  I'm looking at your charts right now. Guys, the tumors are leaving my lungs. It's all
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  gone from the kidney. It's all from the adrenal gland. The spinal thing was
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  nothing. The cardiologist said, you got seven years, so we got to worry about
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  those aneurysms. The thyroid, we don't know what it is, but it ain't bothering me. I'm
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  just taking some steroids and making me fat as a pumpkin. But other than that, I'm
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  pretty good. He looks at my chart. He says, I just want you to know, it looks like
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  we're gonna be dealing with you for years to come. So I'm a pretty happy guy.
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  Praise the Lord. When life hits you, praise the Lord.
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• 15:41
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