by: Kerby Campbell
I want to introduce you to our ministry, Treasured Trials. My name is Kerby Campbell. My wife is Kelli and my two boys are Isaac and Jack. We make up Treasured Trials. When one member of the family suffers, the whole family suffers. God allowed us to start this ministry in 2011.
God called me from North Carolina to Washington State in 1996, to start a church just North of Seattle in a city called Marysville. We started Northwest Baptist Church in December of that year, and God remarkably blessed year after year. Our church grew tremendously. The Lord allowed me to pastor there just two months shy of 15 years.
In February of 2010, I was scheduled to have knee surgery for a torn meniscus. The doctor told me I would be having a spinal epidural to numb me for surgery. I was not given a choice in the matter. I never dreamed that what was to be a simple every day procedure would change my life for good.
The day of surgery, we went in and they prepped me for surgery. The surgery time came and went. While we were waiting, the nurses brought a 17 year old boy out of the operating room and wheeled him right past our pre-op door. We noticed something did not seem right with him. The boy was trembling and shaking like he was experiencing severe convulsions. Everyone in the surgical center was running to his side. We noticed his mom standing there crying. Eventually the staff came and shut our door. We did find out later they had to send him to the nearest hospital.
A while later, the anesthesia doctor came in to give me my epidural. She made my wife leave the room. When she gave me the epidural, an electrical shock went through my body. My body jolted and I told her about it. She asked me questions about what I felt. I told her. She did not say anything else and left the room. She came back approximately 10 minutes later and tried again.
After I was in surgery, my wife saw the mother of the 17 year old boy come back through the surgical waiting room. Kelli asked how her son was and let her know that she was praying for them. His mother told my wife that her son had been given a medicine, in surgery, that he was known to be allergic to and had a reaction. They were able to help him at the hospital and at that point she said he was doing okay. This was the same doctor who gave me my epidural.
During the surgery, I could feel them working on my knee, so I alerted the surgeon. He called the anesthesia doctor over, and that is the last thing I remember until I woke up in the recovery room. I went home, and after the numbing wore off my nightmare began.
When the numbing wore off, I began to experience excruciating pain in my back, where I had the epidural. I also had a massive headache. I told my wife it felt like I had a rock in my back and that I was on fire. She looked at my back and began counting. I had 6 puncture holes where the epidural was!
I have left out many of the details for space sake. I was eventually diagnosed with a disease called Arachnoiditis caused from a bad epidural procedure. Arachnoiditis causes severe, unending, burning nerve pain that travels up and down your spine. It is incurable! For almost 4 years I have had to live on the highest form of pain medication a body can take with still no relief.
God has truly shed His wonderful and marvelous grace upon me and my family. What looked to us as a negligent mistake by a doctor who was not having a good day, was no mistake with God. God does not make mistakes.
It ended my years as being a pastor of the church He allowed me to start. I gave it my all while I was there. Praise God it has not ended my days of serving Him. I cannot do the things I used to do, but the Lord has allowed me to still serve Him as I travel from church to church and speak to others on how to treasure their trials, and most of all speak about our wonderful God.
God brought me to 1 Peter 1:7, “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” This verse states “the trying of our faith is much more precious than gold.” I believe God is saying that we should treasure the “trying” that God allows in all of our lives a whole lot more than we would treasure all the gold we could obtain. When we have done this, then we have treasured our trials.
Dr. Jack Hyles said so many times, “Be good to everybody because everybody is having a tough time.” There are many people who have lost their dreams of a lifetime like we have. We want to help those people look at their trials, whether they be physical, financial, relational or emotional, like God wants us to without dread and something to be endured until it is over. It is not over when a trial comes into your life and rattles your world, turns it from bright and shiny to dark and dreadful. We try to help encourage others to keep on keeping on even when it seems like there is no real way.
Let me share a little outline with you that I have discovered that can help when trials invade our lives.
“Wherein ye greatly rejoice though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 1:6-7
1. THE SURE FACT OF TRIALS
You and I can count on having trials in our lives. No one goes through life without them. The Scripture says the “trying of your faith.” It is not us that is on trial; it is our faith, the very thing that God says pleases Him the most. Hebrews 11:6 says, “But without faith it is impossible to please him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
2. THE SEVERITY OF TRIALS
The Scriptures tell us that there are different degrees or severity of the trials that come into our lives.
The tried with fire trial (1 Peter 1:7)
The fiery trial (1 Peter 4:12)
The seven times hotter trial (Daniel 3:19-25)
3. YOUR SPIRIT WHILE IN THE TRIAL
“But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.”
God commands us to have a good and positive spirit continually while going through our trials.
But rejoice
Be glad
Exceeding joy
“A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.” Proverbs 17:22
“The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear.” Proverbs 18:14
4. THE SUCCESS OF THE TRIAL
“Being much more precious than gold.” 1 Peter 1:7
When God allows us to experience the trying of our faith, He tells us that it should be more precious to us than if we had all the gold in the world. Our trials are to make us more successful.
5. THE SUBMISSION OF THE TRIAL
“Though it be tried with fire; might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 1:7 The main purpose of our trials is for us to submit to the Father and make sure that He gets all the glory and honour. In other words, we are to make Jesus look good!
I have found that while enduring a trial is the best time to exalt the Lord. “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Matthew 5:16
This outline has helped me so much in the last 3½ years of my trial. I pray that God will use it to help and encourage you during your trial. Remember, let us treasure our trials.
We appreciate your prayers for us as we travel and seek to help carry the burdens of many and also for complete healing from arachnoiditis. May God bless you and let us not forget to treasure our trials.
You can find us on our website www.treasuredtrials.com and on Facebook at Treasured Trials.
Kerby Campbell