A couple months ago I showed up to my office on Monday morning and found this voicemail waiting for me. “Pastor Brian, this is Ivan Lootens. You said in your sermon yesterday that you wanted to hear any stories we have about experiencing God’s hand in our lives. I have a story I’d like to share with you when you have time.”
Several weeks passed, and despite my good intentions to call Ivan and my eagerness to hear his story, I never got around to it. Then one day a letter came, plunked out on a typewriter. I opened it up and it was from Ivan. Growing tired of waiting for me to contact him, he decided to type it out and send it to me (Ivan is now legally blind, so sitting down at the typewriter is no small feat). I’m so glad he did. Like all stories of God that ferment inside us, they eventually long to get out. These stories must be told!
So as we head into Holy Week and near the end of this sermon series on Mark’s Gospel, I want to share with you Ivan’s story (in his own voice). Many of you have noticed the abundance of miracles in the first half of Mark’s Gospel. This is intentional on Mark’s part. He wants us to see the unique identity of Jesus as the Son of God, which is evidenced in the miracles. But we are often skeptical of miracles today. They seem in short supply, or as modern people we are quick to dismiss them as superstitious or account for them with more rational explanations. Do miracles still happen? I’ll let Ivan Lootens’ life speak to this question. Here’s his story.
About 3 a.m. on March 22, 1998, I woke up feeling very sick. For the next few days I became extremely dehydrated and had lost consciousness. My wife (I had remarried after losing my first wife) said something to me and I said, “I should get to the doctor.”
She called her daughter in Grand Rapids who came with her husband and they put me in the car and drove me to Grand Haven. Dr. Sikkema examined me and then they walked me next door to the hospital where he and Dr. Kowalski examined me. My only recollection was when he said, “We can’t treat you here and so we’re sending you to Butterworth in Grand Rapids.”
The next two weeks were filled with tests of which I have no recollection. Then the doctor came to tell me that I needed a triple by-pass, and if I survived that, I would likely have to go on dialysis because the problem wasn’t just with my heart but with my kidneys, which were failing. I was also told that it was likely that I would lose one of my legs and never walk again.
Sixty-three days later, I was able to walk out of the hospital, not on dialysis, and with both legs.
At my post-op with Dr. Sikkema, he smiled and said, “Ivan, I never really expected to see you again. It is a miracle that you are alive, and in such good health.”
I hadn’t been to church for three months and it was important for me to go and thank God for my recovery. We quietly slid into the pew. We went to Richmond Reformed in Grand Rapids which was my wife, Leone’s home church.
The pastor got up for the announcements and said, “Our prayers have been answered. I van is able to worship with us this morning! “ The applause was thunderous and I almost broke down. Then the pastor said, “Let’s stand and sing ‘He Touched Me.’” I was able to stand with very rubbery legs and I held onto the pew in front of me and sang out and I couldn’t stop the tears from coming.
Later people said, “God has a plan for you.” I wasn’t ever sure what this “plan” was, but one day someone said, “Perhaps the only thing God wants you to do is to tell your story. We read about miracles in the Bible, but rarely see them ourselves. Ivan, your life is a miracle!”
So that’s what I’ve been trying to do. Tell my story. I just thought you’d like to know.
And Jesus said, “Go home to your own people. Tell them your story—what the Master did, how he had mercy on you.” Mark 5:19, The Message