The Meaning Behind Tragedy: Understanding God's Plan

Appreciate you being here and then you.

That weren't here this morning.

Well, if you don't know what's happening at night, too bad for you.

So we're.

I'm going to do it anyway.

So anyway, before we get going, we can start off.

You go ahead and put a ribbon right now in John, in Hebrews, Hebrews

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12.

Put a marker there.

Then you can turn to the gospel of John 15 and I'm going to

read a passage out of John and then we'll read a passage out of

Hebrews.

Anyway, I enjoy this morning.

I enjoy preaching.

I enjoy preaching to people who want to hear it and I love it.

And I told brother Weatherby, I said, I said I had fun.

I felt like everybody was with me and their people weren't.

There's a word I don't know if any of you Texans know that people

bow up.

And I didn't feel like anybody was bowing up.

And I was glad that Nancy was here.

There might have been one person to bo up but she wasn't here.

She's not here tonight.

I can tease her and make fun of her and do all kinds of stuff

when she's not here.

Anyway, I thought for sure she'd come, but hopefully she'll

feel better tomorrow and get some rest tonight.

It's funny that in the bed that we sleep at at home she thinks

we have a crummy bed.

But when we're gone for a while we come home.

She goes, I love our bed.

So I don't know what to do with her.

But anyway, sometimes bed where you are, it just makes you.

You feel more of the bones that you didn't used to feel or the

connections to them.

I don't know.

Anyway, hopefully she will be better tomorrow.

Everything is good.

The song that was just sung.

Brother Donaldson sang the all of me.

It reminded me I was thinking about.

I'm giving you my.

Our what we call our testimony here in a moment at Nancy and I our

wedding.

The major wedding song.

Her brother's a good singer.

But anyway the song that we wanted everybody to.

To be our testimony to them that came to the wedding was whatever

it takes so to be more like you Jesus.

And when a 21 year old boy and a 19 year old girl got married, they

had no idea all the things that might happen in their future

for whatever it takes to be more like Jesus.

And that reminded me of that.

And I thought I'd tell you I'm only going to what I'm writing.

I'm going to read you some excerpts from the book that I'm writing.

And it's only about what we would call the.

The big wreck.

The first accident.

After this accident, she was in another accident.

Her face went into the windshield, cut her left eyelid off,

and her left eye ruptured.

Two years after that, she had breast cancer and had mastectomy

and took chemotherapy for six months.

And we thought, well, that's plenty.

That's enough.

Well, last year, in 2025, in January, she fell in our hotel room.

I wasn't in there, and when I got back, she told me I fell while

you were gone.

I said, well.

She said, my neck hurts.

And I said, well, can you raise your arms up?

Can you look this way?

Can you look that way?

I said, well, evidently you sprained it.

So we didn't go anywhere.

Three weeks later, it wasn't better.

We went to the hospital and she broke C1 and C2.

And so she.

The doctor said, if it was my wife, I cannot tell you I would go

in and do the surgery.

But since you've already waited this long, there's scar tissue,

and it does make it more dangerous.

He said, if you don't have the surgery and you're going to know

in a couple of weeks that you need the surgery.

And so we said, well, we'll just trust God and we'll be home

in two weeks and we'll go to.

He said, when you get home, go to another doctor and let him look

at him.

So we got home, and he said that she was healing great and we're

grateful.

So then we went to Brazil, and she wore the brace while we were

there.

She wore it an extra two weeks because we went to Brazil.

And while she was there, she had a bleeding ulcer in her esophagus,

which we did not know until we got home.

But the two doctors that treated her said that most people,

or many people die from a bleeding esophagus.

They don't know what's wrong with them.

They don't know what's going on until it's too late.

Nancy's father died of a bleeding ulcer.

It wasn't in his esophagus, we don't think.

I think it was in his stomach.

But anyway, while we were in Brazil, we stayed an extra day because

she went to the hospital the day we were supposed to come home.

And then the next day, they felt like the bleeding was enough,

stopped and so on that we could come home.

But if you've ever.

If you've never been in a Third World Hospital.

It's scary, Larry.

And she laid in what they called ICU room.

And I could only talk to them through the phone, through the interpreting

apps.

And so anyway, I was just really, really believing while I

stood by her.

I've been with four of my personal loved ones when they passed

away.

And when Nancy lay there, I was just sure she was going to die

in that hospital.

And I'm glad she didn't.

She's better.

She's.

She's an amazing, amazing woman.

And I'm going to read you what we went through.

But first, let's do John, chapter 15.

John 15 · chapter mention

If you're able, I'd ask you to stand with me, please.

In the book I'm writing, what I just told you about the cancer,

the second car wreck and the esophagus, the broken neck, that's

going to be like an epilogue in the book.

It's not what the major part of the book is about.

And the goal is of what I'm doing with you tonight.

The goal is that, hey, when stuff happens to us, there is a purpose.

It's not like random God is still God.

He's still in charge.

And when we believe that, that gives us the ability to be able to

go through whatever it is that God's brought in our life.

So, anyway, let me just say this to you, one more thing.

I say the term the sermon used to be called God's loving hand.

God brings his hand down in our life for four particular four.

There's four things.

One of those things is happening when he brings it into

our life.

And then there's three responses.

So I use the term when God brings His hand down in our life.

It's the same term as when God puts us on his wheel.

He's the potter where the clay.

When he puts us on there, he knows what he's doing.

Amen.

All right.

John 15 and verse one and red letters.

Jesus says, I am the true vine and my Father is the husbandman.

Look at verse five.

I am the vine, ye are the branches.

Now look up here.

If Jesus is the vine and he says, ye are the branches, he's talking

to his disciples.

He's talking to us that follow him.

He's talking to us believers.

He's the vine where the branches.

Now look at verse 2.

Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away.

Every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may

bring forth more fruit.

Verse three is a neat verse.

Now ye are clean through the word which I've Spoken unto you.

Why would he say he purgeth it?

That it may bring forth more fruit.

The word purging here, the underlying word, one of the definitions

is it's cleaning.

You purge the vine, you're cleaning off the bad stuff, the crummy

stuff, the stuff that's not supposed to be there, you're cleaning

that off it.

Although also includes trimming or pruning the branch.

But then Jesus says, well, I'm divine, you're the branches.

But he says, my Father, he purchased every branch.

Then he goes, ye are clean through the Word.

So the one way that he cleanses us is through His Word.

Amen.

Okay, now let's go to Hebrews chapter 12.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

Hebrews, chapter 12.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

All of it's good.

I'm just going to concentrate a couple verses or a few verses here.

Let's look at it.

Verse number five.

And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you

as unto children.

Hey, my son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint

when thou art rebuked of him.

Verse 6.

For whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth and scourge of every son

whom he receiveth.

I don't know about your little brain, but in my brain when it says

chasten, that sounds like it probably is uncomfortable.

Well, then he goes and scourgeth.

That sounds more uncomfortable.

Sounds worseth every son.

Look at verse 7.

If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons.

And he asks the question, for what son is he whom the Father chasteneth

not?

If ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are

ye bastards and not sons?

Furthermore, we had fathers of our flesh which corrected us.

We gave them reverence.

Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits

and live?

For they our fathers, verily, for a few days chastened us after

their own pleasure.

That just means after their own wisdom.

But he God, for our profit, that we might be partakers of his

holiness.

Now, no chastening, for the present seemeth to be chasing joyous,

but grievous nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable

fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

I'm not going to preach this.

I'm just going to point it out.

I just wrote it a couple days ago in the Book.

But anyway, which are exercised thereby.

If you're not exercised by his chastening hand, you don't get the

peaceable fruit.

And some crybabies go, I don't know what's wrong.

How can maybe you're not accepting being exercised, believing

that he's involved in it and acknowledge that.

All right, let me pray with you.

Our great God, I sure love you.

Thank you.

That you love me, that you love us.

Thank you for Heritage Baptist Church and all the marvelous, wonderful

things you've done in her history and God.

Truly, this congregation here tonight believe that you have many,

many marvelous things you want to continue to do.

And so, God, I pray that all of us willingly open up our hearts

and minds to your work and our lives.

Everything that happens to us is your work in our lives.

So what these folks are going through and this church is going

through, it's your work.

You know how to handle it.

You know what to do with it.

You knew it was coming.

So I pray that we would acknowledge and accept your work

in our lives and by faith that we would be exercised thereby.

And God, it would be evident the peaceable fruit that comes out

of our lives trusting and depending on you.

So, God, thank you again for everything you've done for us.

I can't wait to see you, Jesus.

And it's in your mighty and holy name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

You may be seated.

I'm going to read for 22 minutes or so.

I hope you're not bored.

I'm going to try to read it where you won't be bored, and then

I'll make the application.

Here we go.

I'm going to say I'm reading excerpts.

I'm picking stuff out.

It's not all in sequence.

The morning started off beautiful.

It didn't seem like August 12th in Glen Pool, a bedroom community

of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Often the mornings are hot, humid, suffocating at 7am the temperature

today is in the mid-70s and would not reach 90.

That would help make the day much more pleasant.

For what was planned, today was going to be a busy one.

First thing was to get the girls ready to go on an adventure

with Aunt Evelyn.

Evelyn is David's mother's older sister.

Angie has recently turned 11.

Her sister, Becky, would be 10 in October.

Neither of them have ever seen a peach orchard, let alone picked

peaches.

Bixby's, a small town just south of Tulsa and is known for its

sweet and beautiful peaches.

The girls are excited and looking forward to picking peaches

and then watching and maybe even helping in the canning process.

The next part of the big day was Nancy and the girls getting back

home.

Finished packing, then driving 2 1/2 hours to Moore, Oklahoma, and

meeting David at his parents house.

A youth rally is on the schedule that evening.

The reason Nancy is meeting David is because he was speaking

at a youth camp just southeast of Wichita, Kansas.

So we decided it would be best if we all met and more in time for

the youth rally.

Nancy would be driving the newly painted 1971 Ford half ton

pickup truck.

She had learned to drive a standard shift as a child on her

parents small farm just east of Dallas.

It wasn't really a working farm, more of a hobby with a few

cows.

The four speed was not a problem for Nancy.

In fact she kind of liked driving it to show others she had

no issues with operating a clutch and shifting the four speed

on the floor.

Our plan was on Saturday morning we were to head off for Georgetown,

Texas.

Dave had not pastored for eight months.

He had been invited to Georgetown for the opportunity to

candidate for for a pastoral position.

Possibly this would be God's plan for the McCracken's ministry.

Only God knew the plan did not include Texas.

Did not include a youth rally in Moore, Oklahoma.

These never happened.

It's amazing how in just a few seconds everything can change.

Yes, the peaches have been picked.

But that would be the end of the plans for the day.

The McCracken family is not the only family whose plans have

been catastrophically changed in a few moments or a few seconds.

It happens every day to thousands of people.

It can be a diagnosis or a doctor's report, or a horrific crime.

Mother Nature bringing up a deadly wind or literally shaking

the earth.

Or an overwhelming flood, or an explosion because of faulty equipment.

Or an enemy with malice and hate.

Or a seemingly small accident that turns into a life changing injury.

Or a big accident that changes everything.

Regardless of how or why, tragedy someday will come into everybody's

life.

No family is exempt.

No family will escape.

Everyone will suffer loss, heartbreak, tragedy.

One way or another.

Life will occur to all that are living if enough time passes.

I'm saying this to let you know that our family story is not

special.

We are not unique.

Thousands and probably millions have a story like ours.

I've told our story many times over the years.

At the first it was a sermon style to let others know they are

not the only ones who who go through crummy heartbreaking tragedy.

Also to give some comfort and peace and some answers to why God

allows so many people to suffer and experience devastation.

Why?

Why does he allow it?

If he is God, can't he prevent these horrible things from happening?

Isn't he supposed to be better and stronger than His Arch enemy?

Is God so weak or non caring or disinterested that the millions

of tragedies that occur every day don't warrant his attention?

Or is he just too powerless to do anything about it?

These questions are fair and should be answered.

If you will stay with me, I will answer them.

This is not a theological dissertation.

This is not a Bible study.

It's not a sermon.

This is our story of God's goodness and his work in our lives.

Nancy was driving the red 1971 Ford pickup.

Becky was next to Nancy.

Then it was Angie.

And Aunt Evelyn was next to the passenger's door.

There were no usable seat belts in the truck.

The peaches were in the bed of the truck.

The girls were always singing songs that they had learned while

listening to their tape player.

Several days after our lives changed forever.

The girls were talking about what was going on just before the

accident.

They were singing one of Mr. Hamilton's aka Pat's the Pirates

songs.

How can I fear just moments before the wreck.

The words are just as precious and powerful today as they were 36

years ago.

When shadows fall and night covers all There are things that

my eyes cannot see I'll never fear for the Savior is near My Lord

abides with me When I'm alone and face the unknown and fear what

the future may be I can depend on the strength of my friend he walks

along with me how can I fear Jesus is near he ever watches me

Worries all cease he gives me peace how can I fear with Jesus?

Jesus is king he controls everything he is with me each night

and each day I trust my soul to the Savior's control He drives

all fears away how can I fear Jesus is near he ever watches me

Worries all cease he gives me peace how can I fear with Jesus?

Two weeks after the accident, one of our neighbors took me to the

place where the accident happened.

I had Learned that around 10:30 in the morning on the way home

from picking peaches, the four peach pickers were traveling south

on a gravel farm road that was lined with tall elm trees that gave

the feeling of a tunnel.

This was a new road for Nancy, and Evelyn was giving the directions.

The tunnel of trees, the slight uphill grade and the overgrown

weeds at the intersection and the missing stop sign made it impossible

to see the old paved highway going east and west until you were

right on top of it.

After visiting the site of the accident, we went to the salvage

yard and I saw the peach truck.

The front left fender was smashed and the back corner panel

was smashed.

The overwhelming Power of the crashing of the front fenders caused

the trucks to spin away from each other and smash each other's

back quarter panels.

The force was so great.

Nancy's door was torn from its latchings, its latching mechanisms.

And her body was quickly between the two trucks.

The left side of her skull, just in front of the top of her ear,

was crushed about the size of a 50 cent piece.

The reason we know that this is the reason we know this is that

the color of the paint that was cleaned from her brain was blue.

The color of the work truck.

Nancy's body was shot out between the trucks like a slingshot.

Her body slid down the old pavement and peeled skin and hair

from the back of her head.

Her forehead had a gash from side to side like a Frankenstein

scar.

She had some road rash, but nothing that stood out.

It's remarkable.

The only thing that she broke was her collarbone and her head.

The girls tell the story that when the truck stopped jerking and

bouncing and shaking, they looked at each other, then at Aunt

Evelyn.

They described what happened next.

Aunt Evelyn looked an ashen color and she slid out of the seat

onto the floor.

They knew they had just watched her die.

They wanted to get out of that truck.

They weren't about to get out on Aunt Evelyn's side and they couldn't

if they wanted to.

Her door was pinned against the ditch.

Aunt Evelyn wasn't dead, but she was critical.

When the crash happened, they were all whiplashed to the left.

Becky's right leg was wrapped around the gear shifter, resulting

in torn thigh muscles.

The top of her head hit something and she needed several

stitches.

The right side of Angie's face hit something that resulted in a

black eye that lasted for more than six months.

Five years later, the day she was to get her driver's license,

she began to have seizures.

We all believe this was a direct result from her six months

black eye.

She was on seizure medicine for just a few years.

We are grateful that she doesn't need medication any longer.

Angie also banged her shoulder into something and she broke her

collarbone.

Just moments after the crash, a lady driving a brown van was coming

the same direction as a blue work truck.

She stopped short of the accident and saw two young girls

getting out of the red Ford.

The girls were getting away from Aunt Evelyn and they wanted

to find their mama.

The girls testimony is that when they saw their mother across

the road, she was covered with so much blood, she was unrecognizable.

The only way they knew for sure it was her is because of her

clothing.

Just then, the nice lady from the van got their attention and said,

Girls, girls, don't go across the road.

Please don't go across the road.

She helped these two frightened, bloodied and bruised

little girls to her van and waited with them until help arrived.

The van was one of those that the door would slide back and you

could step inside.

The girl sat in the doorway of the van with her feet touching the

ground.

In those short moments, Becky looks at Angie and says, how can

I fear when Jesus is near?

And they began to softly sing this song again.

My parents and I arrived in the hospital in the afternoon around

4 o'.

Clock.

I was thankful for the outpouring of love and said thank

you to several as we made our way through the crowd.

We were relieved and thankful when we were informed that Angie

and Becky were going to be okay.

And they were at our neighbor's house.

We also learned that Aunt Evelyn was alive and in the same

hospital in ICU and expected to make a full recovery.

When I made it through the information desk, they told me that

Nancy was out of surgery and in icu.

I was instructed to go through the double doors down the hall and

I would be shown to Nancy's room.

As I was walking down the hall, a man dressed as a doctor in

scrubs asked If I was McCracken.

I said yes, and he said he was a doctor that operated on her.

He.

He began to explain what he had done and he described her condition.

Her head had a fracture on the left near the ear.

And the bone was pressing down on the brain.

The good news was that it had not penetrated the dura, the protective

membrane around the brain.

He was able to clean all the paint and debris from inside her

head.

He removed the broken skull fragments and smoothed the edges,

but did not put a plate over the hole, believing the muscles on

that part of the skull would be enough protection.

He showed me when you chew, you can see and you can feel the

muscle.

He said that her brain had been bruised on all sides.

Nancy was in a coma.

What the doctor was most concerned for was the brain stem.

It was either bruised or severed.

If she lived for three days, he would perform a test to see if

the signal made the loop or the circuit in her brain.

He explained that all involuntary body functions such as

heart rate, breathing rate and temperature are controlled through

the brain stem.

These were all off the charts for Nancy.

She had a laceration across her forehead.

He had put staples there and felt like it should heal nicely.

He explained the back of her head at several places where the

skin and hair had been pulled away.

He cleaned and medicated and bandaged it.

The doctor showed me to her room.

I thanked him for his explanations and all that he had

done.

Then he left.

Nancy was lying on her back with tubes and wires connected to

monitors.

She was bandaged with gauze wrapped around her head.

The only thing that was visible was a portion of the staples.

The rest was covered in bandages.

They had not shaved her head entirely because I could see short

pieces of hair sticking underneath some of the gauze.

She was in a deep coma.

I kissed her face and talked to her as if she were awake.

The only thing I knew about comas was what I'd seen on tv.

I told her that I loved her and that the girls were at the neighbor's

house and they were okay.

I prayed with her and put her in God's hands, believing and trusting

he was in control of the uncontrollable.

I kissed her again, went to the waiting room, told her friends

and family what the doctor told me.

I let them know that I was going home.

There were two little girls that needed me.

For 55 days she had not opened her eyes.

It had been 60 days since I had seen those smiling, playful,

captivating, bright blue eyes.

I had just kissed her goodbye and was in the car backing out of

the driveway and I had my window down.

She had the front door open, leaning out, waving, blowing kisses

and mouthing, I love you.

I was waving and saying, I love you.

The memory is so precious and it constantly.

The memory is precious and it constantly reminds me when one of

us is leaving.

We never know that this will be the last time to look into each

other's eyes.

I've made it a personal rule that I will not leave the house upset.

If this was to be our last memory, I want it to be like it was

on Monday 8th August.

Now it was October 6th.

I was on my lunchtime visit.

I walked into her room.

The head of her bed is on the left, so I could see that her right

eye was shut.

As I walked around the foot of the bed, I saw that her left eye

was opened.

Oh, hallelujah.

I blurted out.

Hello, Nancy.

I was grinning from ear to ear.

I bent over and kissed her and I was so excited to see her beautiful

blue eye.

As I write these words, I began to cry, reliving the joy and

the thrill of that moment.

I just kept talking, saying, I love you.

I'm glad to see you.

I'm so glad you're awake.

It's been so long.

Then I noticed she wasn't looking at anything.

It was just a stare straight at the ceiling.

Her eye was opened, but she wasn't awake.

She's still considered comatose.

I'd never heard of that before and I was not expecting it.

The next day, both eyes were open, but it was still as if nobody

was home.

They didn't look at anything.

Talking to her as if she.

As if.

It was as if she didn't hear you.

If you thought you had her attention, you would soon notice

that she was not following you with her eyes.

She was just staring with no recognition.

I remember one day I entered into the room and I was excited because

the nurses had given Nancy some relief from the bed and she

was sitting in a wheelchair.

I asked if I could roll her outside to the garden area.

It was beautiful outside and they said yes.

As we traveled down the halls and the.

And the elevator, she did not hold her head up.

It was slightly tilted forward, leaning a little bit to

the left.

I was hoping that being outside in the sunshine and the beautiful

surroundings, it would spark something in her and she would show

she had recognition of everything, or at least something.

I wanted her to let me know she was awake.

Her eyes were open, as if she were taking in everything.

But in just a minute, it was obvious.

With her eyes wide open, she was still zombie like, with no awareness

or recognition whatsoever.

For me, it was heartbreaking.

I just knew being outside would stir something in her.

After eight weeks at St. Francis Hospital, Nancy was moved

by ambulance to a rehab facility at the Broken Arrow Medical

center in Broken arrow, Oklahoma, on October 15th.

The IVs have been disconnected.

There was no longer a trach.

The hole in the neck just closes up and begins to grow together

as if it was stitched without stitches.

If you know what you're looking for, you could see a small

scar.

Today.

You may not notice it if you were not looking for it.

The staples had been removed from her forehead.

The stitches on the back of her head and the ones near her temple

had dissolved.

She was able to swallow soft things like Jello.

She was very good at sucking on a straw.

She had not yet stood.

Her bathroom was a catheter.

She wasn't talking.

There was no way to tell if she knew us or not.

There was no expression in her eyes or her face that gave any indication

that we were familiar to her.

We have visited her every day for eight weeks, hoping, praying,

believing she could hear our voices and wouldn't know who we were.

She is still considered comatose.

When Nancy first began to talk, her voice was soft and raspy.

She spoke slowly.

She had the cadence and inflection of an innocent toddler.

I've always been playful with Nancy and going about teasing her,

trying to get a rise out of her, make her smile or laugh with

her quick wit and sly smile.

She always had been a good sport and a sidekick in receiving

and responding to my playfulness and my sense of humor.

It is true there have been times when the humor was not received

like I had hoped.

After all, I am a man Standing at her right side with her head with

her I'm sorry, standing on her right side with her head to my left

because this is the side that works.

The left arm continued to be folded against her chest and her

hand was still in a fist.

I had just asked her if she was married.

She wrinkled her brow some and looked as if she was thinking.

Finally, in her child voice, she said no.

I looked at her with love and sincerity and asked her, would you

marry me?

She did the wrinkled brow thing again and thought for a moment.

With no expression, just a matter of fact statement, she said

no.

I honestly wasn't phased.

I quickly said, too bad you're already married to me.

You're my wife.

You can't get away from me.

You have to go home with me.

Those that were around the bed all snickered.

Not Nancy.

Her response was if she had no idea what I was talking about.

As the days went along, Nancy did begin to realize that we were

the same people that came every day and she was accepting,

maybe even remembering or better even knowing that we were

her family.

I was her husband, Angie and Becky were her daughters.

It wasn't like a light came on and she says, oh yeah, I know who

you are.

It was more like an acceptance that we were her family.

There was no expression of thrill or joy or excitement that

she understood or finally knew who we were.

We weren't sure if she was aware if she had a relationship with

God.

After every visit, no matter how deep the coma or during the getting

lighter phase, I would bend over her face, put my right hand

on top of her head, my left hand on her left arm, and I would

pray with her.

It was sometime in November.

I had just finished praying and was starting to raise up away

from her.

She grabbed my shirt just below the neck and with her good

hand pulled me down close to her face and said in her raspy childish

voice, day that I thank the Lord for you.

Mercy.

I cried and kissed her and rejoiced with confidence that she

knew who God was.

And then we have relationship with him.

The second week of December there began to be a new complication.

The descriptions that therapists and doctors used was tremors.

The explanation was that as the swelling decreases and abnormal

circuits become active or or the brain rewires incorrectly or

scar tissue affects the brain signaling the systems that normally

keep movement smooth and controlled become unbalanced.

The brain signals without proper regulation resulting in muscles

firing rhythmically and involuntarily, which we see as tremors.

Nancy's tremors were so violent, all physical therapy had

to stop.

She was not able to walk or stand on her own.

Her entire body shook so much she had to be tied into a wheelchair.

It was involuntary and completely uncontrollable.

We call the tremors the shakes.

The doctor did say the tremors would slowly fade and someday in

the future you might not even notice them.

The tremors did slowly diminish.

We we used cloth belts for at least three months in the wheelchair.

Her head and hands and arms would continue to shake for more

than a year.

If she was agitated or exciting, the shaking would be more

pronounced.

This would continue for more than five years.

The tremors in her right hand are still part of her life.

All fine motor skills are performed with her right hand.

When she attempted to eat the food on the fork or the spoon would

shake off and you never knew where it might land in its surprising

flight, it was scary to see the fork move toward her mouth.

You could see she was about to get stabbed.

It never happened.

Two years into the recovery, she began to eat left handed.

No matter what the task that she was attempting, she didn't complain.

She never said I hate these shakes or I wish I didn't have these

shakes or I wish the wreck never happened.

While in college, she played the piano for choir and traveling

singing groups.

She could play any piece written.

If you gave her time to practice.

Today she's able to read the score and she knows the keys.

But her hands don't cooperate.

Nancy became an excellent seamstress for our daughters.

Mostly out of necessity.

From infants to fourth and fifth grade, the girls were always

had beautiful fancy frilly dresses.

Nancy also had become an excellent cook.

Her fried chicken would give the colonel a stiff competition.

On the first dinner she had tipped it.

After she came home was rabbit.

Some friends had given it to us.

It was in the freezer.

She would normally prepare rabbit the same way she did her world

class chicken.

Well, she did not.

She prepared it as if it was fish.

Battered in cornmeal and fried in hot grease on top of the stove.

Fish doesn't take long to fry.

It takes much less time than chicken or rabbit.

It was not close to edible.

We did not laugh or tease her.

We knew she was doing the best she could.

Nancy was frustrated.

However, she did not get her feelings hurt.

She did understand it was not properly cooked and that was it.

We bought pizza.

Her cooking skills and her craft with a sewing machine are the

same as the piano.

The food nor the dresses nor the music look or sounded like expected.

I thought about Nancy's accepting behavior many times.

Many brain injured folks become violent or angry or frustrated.

That could be caused by that part of the brain that was injured.

Although Nancy's recovery included childish selfishness, she

never complained about the disability.

I feel for those that have the battle with sadness or complaint

or depression or disappointment or disgust.

I suppose no one will ever know exactly why there are so many

different behaviors and and attitudes of the brain injured.

I do know this.

I'm very grateful for Nancy's behavior and attitude.

I've already told about the crummy months she has matured and

moved past that selfish and childish behavior.

She has had many occasions to complain about me and my failures.

But there's not been one time that there was a complaint about

the Shakespeare or the inability to do normal activity.

It was as she did not consider her condition was a fault of someone

else or that she was the recipient of an unlucky time and

place accident.

I've asked her, do you miss playing the piano or would you like

to sew again?

Her answer is never in complaint or frustration.

She simply says yes, but my hands shake too much.

There is never regret or sorrow.

We have been blessed.

So that's all I'll read to you.

Thank you for letting me do that.

What is God doing?

What?

What is happening.

In the book?

I tell the readers I'm trying to write the book as if non believers

would read it too.

But I do tell them that I happen to believe the Bible is God's

word and that I can trust it.

And I believe it.

And that's how I view things that happen in my life.

And so that's the only way I know how to view it.

And so In Hebrews chapter 12 we know that he says that we have

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

this exhortation which speaketh as unto children, verse

5.

Despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint

when thou rebuked of him.

For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and Scourgeth every son

whom he receiveth.

If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons.

What son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

But if he be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers,

then are you bastards and not sons.

What is chastening?

Well, I looked up in the Strong's concordance and some of

the definitions like this.

I thought this was fascinating.

The first word that comes out is tutorage.

Chastening is to tutor us.

To tutor us.

I think it means to teach us.

It's tutorage, education, training.

The implication of chastening is a disciplinary correction.

Instruction, nurture, Strong's continues with these words the whole

training and education of children.

So by the time the baby comes home, until the baby leaves the house,

there are times of training and education.

Amen.

It relates to the cultivation of the mind and their morals.

It uses this term it employs for this training, for this tutorage,

commands and admonitions and reproof and punishment.

It's instruction which aims at increasing virtue, good behavior.

Noah Webster's dictionary says, correction, punishment, pain

inflicted for punishment and Correction.

In Isaiah 53, the chastisement of our peace was upon him.

The pain that Christ suffered was the stripes that he received

to purchase our peace.

Amazing.

Hebrews 12 does say verse 11.

Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous.

It's grievous, it's heavy, it's painful, it's sorrowful, it

causes grief.

It's obvious to me and you, isn't it obvious that if chastening

is going to happen, it's going to be uncomfortable.

It's not.

It's grievous.

It's not joyous.

I already know the society, the day that we live in, that corporal

punishment is inappropriate, and so on.

Well, like I said, I happen to believe the Bible.

I go by what the book says.

I believe God knows much more of how to deal with children and

deal with discipline than Oprah, Dr. Phil.

I believe the Bible.

Evidently God believes that sometime discipline needs to occur.

What is it for?

What is he doing?

Well, I say the first reason that he brings his hand down in our

life is for retribution.

What is retribution?

Retribution is when a wrong is committed.

In our legal system, it would be when a crime is committed that

whatever the court punishment they give is supposed to match the

weight of the crime.

Amen.

If you steal someone's truck, it's not the same as going in their

house and murdering them.

There's different Ways.

Everybody with me, same, same.

So retribution is when you and I are disobedient.

Ignore.

Now, this is fascinating to me.

In writing the book, it became very pronounced to me whether you're

saved or unsaved.

If you neglect and ignore God, there are still consequences for

the unsaved also.

So retribution is whatever we've done, we've been disobedient.

We know good and well that we've done some wicked or evil or

sinful things.

God knows what we've done.

And here's what's fascinating about when God brings his hand down

in our life for retribution, you will never, ever do this.

You'll never go, what?

What is this for?

Why are you doing that?

If it's retribution, you will never have to ask why.

You will know exactly why he brought his hand down in your life.

I personally have been in the hospital.

I've been in the front room.

I've been in the.

In the.

Of a home where a family were with the family.

And I've had families speak up.

They tell me, I know exactly why this is going on.

Why?

Because God's getting their attention and he's letting them know

this is what's happening.

Now, a husband can look at his wife and lie and say, I don't know

why this is going on.

But you and God really know that.

You do know why.

You just don't want to tell her.

That can happen in any combination.

But if you don't know why, it's not retribution.

Some people would say, well, Brother Dave, when Nancy had this

horrible car crash, or these other things happen, is it retribution?

Not.

I tell you, Nancy is one of the most virtuous people I know.

It wasn't sin in her life.

And for me, it wasn't some sinful thing that I had been doing

or involved in that God is saying, we're cracking.

We're not.

I'm not putting up with that.

And so I did not look to heaven and say, I don't know why

you're doing this, but I knew it wasn't retribution.

Everybody with me.

So what's the second reason he does it?

It's called correction.

You haven't actually committed the crime.

You haven't actually stepped over the edge yet, but you're about

to.

You're leaning that way.

You're on the wrong path.

I use this term some people don't like, but it's like God just

smacks you upside the head a little bit, smack on the shoulder,

hey, get back where you belong.

You know better than that don't be doing that.

And correction is not as easily discernible as retribution.

But I will tell you, for Dave McCracken, I need correction all

the time.

My carnal man always wants his way.

And I need to tell Mr. Concarney, he's in charge of my life

a lot.

Is everybody hearing me?

And God corrects me and say, mccracken, we're not going.

You're not going there.

And he and his kindness will protect me or correct me to get me

back where I'm supposed to be.

The third reason is protection.

What do you mean?

Well, any loving father will protect their children from harm's

way.

It's a horrific.

It's a horrific parent that has her child next to a hot stove

and doesn't warn their child.

That's horrific.

That's evil.

And our God will protect us.

We're his kids.

And there are times that he brings his hand down in our life

to protect us.

I tell the story about my oldest daughter, Angie.

She was somewhere around 3 years old.

And I've told her, I told her and told her, don't ever get in the

street.

Our front yard did not have a fence, just a little small yard and

there's a street out there.

I said, don't ever get in the street.

Don't ever get in the street.

If you get in the street, a truck will run over you.

Don't get in the street.

And I just was serious about it.

One day I'm standing there and there she is standing in the street.

I go out the glass door and grab her up and start spanking her

bottom and all the way into her bedroom and spanked her some

more when we got in there.

And the three year old, if she could, she'd look at me and say,

you'll kill me before a truck does.

Sometimes the protection is just as uncomfortable as the retribution.

So I'll give you a couple of.

For instance, retribution.

Remember that God told Adam, the day thou eatest thereof, thou

shalt surely die.

If Adam didn't know what die means, and I don't know, he was very

intelligent man, but he was not going to have relationship with

God anymore.

There's no more fellowship because he's a sinner.

Amen.

And you know, that's retribution.

And that retribution still has consequences today because of his

disobedience.

Another retribution that's familiar to many of us, I suppose,

is our hero, King David, committed adultery and murder.

The baby got sick.

David moaned and prayed and begged God and begged God and cried

and Mourned and mourned.

And then he saw him talking.

He goes, is the baby dead?

And they said, yep, he got up and cleaned up and they go, what's

that about?

He said, well as long as the baby was alive, who knows?

God is full of compassion.

He might have let him live, but he knew why that baby died.

Amen.

He knew exactly why.

What about correction?

James and John?

Do any remember them sons of thunder, they wanted to call fire

down from heaven.

Hey Jesus, you want us to call fire down and you want us to.

Jesus said, boys, you do not know what spirit year above.

It's almost like you bamboo hearing it.

Just, we're not doing that guys.

That's not us, it's correction.

Here's another correction in my opinion is Jesus was washing the

disciples feet.

They didn't prepare for this.

They had dirty feet.

It's gross.

I've always, I've wanted to do this.

I'd probably never get the opportunity, but I've wanted to call

the church together for a surprise meeting on Friday night.

Come straight from work, come straight from the ball field.

It doesn't matter.

We're having a surprise meeting and it's most important meeting

of the year.

You need to be here 7:30, everybody get in, lock the door,

say, everybody take off your shoes and socks.

You know how many people say I ain't staying here because we're

all better than the disciples, aren't we?

Yeah, we don't have the humility that Jesus did.

He gets to Peter, Peter says you ain't washing my feet.

And Jesus looked at him and smacked him upside the head with

these words, if I don't wash your feet, you have no part of me.

That's correction.

Peter says, watch me all over Jesus.

I'm ready.

What about protection?

Our hero, Paul.

Man, it's hard to believe God gave him a thorn in the flesh and

it was uncomfortable.

Was it because Paul was wicked?

No.

Wasn't retribution.

Was it for correction that Paul's going the wrong way?

Well, it hadn't happened yet.

Well what was for?

It's for protection.

You know why Paul said he gave me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger

of Satan.

And it was because of all the revelations that had been given to

him.

Because he was likely to become proud and every arrogant because

God had used him so much.

You know how easy it is for me and you to get proud and arrogant?

What about God giving us a thorn in the flesh?

And we beg him please.

He begged him three times, take it away, take it away.

I don't like this.

Please.

And he knew God gave it to him.

God said, my grace is sufficient for thee.

And in the study of what I've been doing, I'll just say this to

your face.

His grace is sufficient.

Whether you accept it or not, his grace is always sufficient.

I'll always cry babies whining and wallowing in our self pity and

our tragedy and our disaster.

His grace is always sufficient.

The fourth reason he brings his hand in our life is that we might

produce more fruit.

He purges us.

He prunes us so we can produce more fruit.

I told you just a moment ago that for correction.

I know that all of this in my life, I just tell you, I don't have

time to tell you right now.

But God changed me completely when Nancy was in a coma for 65 days

or he changed me completely when she was in a wheelchair for

a year.

It changed my life.

I needed that kind of correction.

To bear more fruit.

I know that God protected us through Nancy's accident.

I don't know if you were listening how well you heard it,

but we were supposed to go to Texas on Saturday morning and God

protected that church in Austin.

We never went down there.

He might have protected us too, but hallelujah.

But I know beyond the shadow of a doubt, me standing in front

of you tonight is part of the we would bear more fruit.

God has used our testimony.

Nancy's remarkable life.

Hundreds and thousands, thousands of people have been touched

by God's kindness and goodness in our life.

If Nancy were here tonight, I probably would not ask her to do

this.

But I asked her to do it many times at youth camps and other services

around the country.

I would ask Nancy to come forward.

She doesn't have princess like gait.

She doesn't walk with her head chin up like this anymore.

She can't.

She would walk shaking some and she'd come up and take the microphone

and she would say to you, well, it's like the song I taught

my girls when they were little.

He's still working on me to make me what I ought to be.

It's precious.

And I'm so grateful for my wife's sweet spirit and accepting

this is what God had in my life.

Putting on earrings, I put them on her yesterday.

She can't often.

Sometimes she can, but she's doing this.

Put it on a necklace.

Sometimes she breaks out in a sweat.

She can't get it hooked.

Putting on her makeup.

She's never asked me to do that.

But it's remarkable to me that she puts her arms together like this.

And she's gone, putting on mascara.

And I'm going, I don't know how you don't poke your eye.

But you look good, baby.

You look good.

I don't know.

I do know this.

Every one of us have crummy things that happen.

God has a reason.

He has a purpose.

And it's either something's going on, retribution takes place.

Now, you better be very careful.

When you start knowing why it's going on in their life.

I can tell you why you're making a big boo boo.

When you start knowing.

I know why you're going through this.

Yeah.

You're foolish to say that about other people.

God is so good to me and you.

He's still interested in us.

All the times we failed Him.

All the times we didn't do what we should have done.

He still loves us.

We're still his kids.

He doesn't disown us.

He doesn't throw the key away.

He's got the door open, waiting for us to come back home.

He loves us.

He gives us so much more peace.

If we'll acknowledge that God loves me.

If it's not retribution, well, it could be correction.

And most of us need it.

Protection.

Bless his holy name.

He protects us from stuff all the time we don't even know about.

Amen.

And then to help us or allow us to bear more fruit.

He should have said, you're such a lousy fruit producer.

He says, mccracken, I'm going to keep working on you.

I want you to produce more fruit.

I'm going to ask you to stand.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you very much.

Let me pray with you.

Our great God, I come to you again.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

I'm grateful for a congregation that would sit and listen

and be attentive.

But God, just to hear the story, hear all this stuff is not

enough.

If we don't acknowledge that you're at work in our lives.

And I pray that we would accept you're at work and we won't

fight it.

That we will be exercised thereby.

That God, it brings the peaceable fruit.

When we don't have peace, it's obvious that we're not accepting

what you're doing.

When we're on your potter's wheel.

I pray that we'd be people that accept your kindness in our

life.

And every time it's out of love.

Thank you.

If someone's not saved, I'm so glad you're giving them a chance

to get saved tonight.

I pray they'd want to get saved and stop putting it off tonight.

So have your way with us, Jesus.

Our heads are bowed and music's going to begin.

He's going to begin to sing.

Invitation.

If you want to sing with him, you're welcome to.

But if you want to just spend some time with Jesus, tell him thanks.