• Contact
  • Return to IBSA
  • Advertise Through Us
  • Subscribe
  • E-Reader

IBSA News

Illinois Baptist State Newspaper

  • Quick Links
    • E-Reader
    • Subscribe
    • Advertise
    • Resource
  • News
    • IBSA
    • SBC
    • Culture
    • Illinois Churches
  • Stories
    • Church Planting
    • Mission
  • In Focus
  • Columns
    • Nate Adams
    • Eric Reed
    • Meredith Flynn
    • Table Talk
    • Reporter’s Notebook
    • Encouraging Words
Brent Cloyd

Cloyd: Why a doctor’s warning still rings in my heart

May 23, 2022 By Brent Cloyd

My wife, Jeanette, has walked with a slight limp for as long as I have known her. She has had joint issues that required her to exercise caution when moving about. For years, some degree of numbness has been present in her hands and feet. Earlier attempts to identify and correct these matters were not successful. So, she learned to adapt, endure, and move forward without complaint.

Her aches and pains have not stopped her from taking care of our home, serving as a pastor’s wife, being a denominational servant, or serving as a mission volunteer. But in recent years these issues have become more of a challenge. In the past two years her pain has been excruciating and her mobility has been limited. In the past year she has required a cane and then a walker to move around the house.

The pandemic slowed the journey to discover the causes of these problems. Our efforts were further delayed by deaths in the family. But in the course of time, it was revealed that she had spinal stenosis in her lower back and neuropathy in her feet. Medications and physical therapy helped with the pain and enhanced her mobility to a degree, but it was obvious that her problems were numerous and complicated.

In January we had a consultation with a neurologist who did a thorough examination. He concurred about the neuropathy and stenosis, but he said these things should not be causing the current level of weakness in her legs, her gait, reflexes, and the tingling and numbness in her feet and hands. The doctor ordered a battery of tests. Although he was not convinced of the need for it, he also ordered an MRI performed on her neck.

“There’s a spiritual lesson in our doctor’s words for us as missionary people.”Within a couple of hours, we saw the results online. The MRI revealed severe stenosis in her neck at the C-4, 5, and 6 area. That very afternoon the neurologist’s office secured an appointment with the neurosurgeon. The surgeon explained how the stenosis was putting severe pressure on the spinal cord and that surgery was necessary to relieve that pressure.

He did not promise that it would correct any of her existing problems, but he said the surgery needed to be done to prevent much more crippling effects.

Jeanette had surgery on February 15. The surgery went well. Later that day the physician’s assistant was visiting with Jeanette. “When was the last time you fell?” he asked.

She replied that it had been three or four months.

He said they could tell by the bruising on the spinal cord that she had endured a blunt force impact that likely had been caused by a fall. “One more fall and you would have been in serious trouble,” he told her.

When my wife relayed that story to me, my soul cried and rejoiced at the same time. The Lord had been gracious. She had been spared from severe physical injury.

Jeanette is recovering from the surgery, we have seen some positive results, and we await to see what the next steps of the journey might be. But the words of the physician’s assistant keep ringing in my heart and mind: “One more fall and you would have been in serious trouble.”

There is a spiritual lesson in our doctor’s words for us as missionary people. Everyday we encounter people who physically and spiritually are on the edge of death and hell. They are one fall from an irreversible eternal destiny.

You and I stand before them with the healing gospel of the Great Physician. The saving power of the gospel is the only hope they have. We are the ones who must confront them with the truth about the severity of their predicament. We are the ones who must deliver the crucial plea for them to believe the gospel and come to faith in Christ.

The gospel may sound like foolishness to them, but they can’t risk one more fall.

Brent Cloyd is Associational Mission Strategist for Greater Wabash Baptist Association.

Share This Story

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Featured Columns

SBC25 Dallas

7 BOLOs for the Dallas Convention

Eric Reed

If the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Dallas June 10-11 proves to be a rowdy rodeo, we will “be on the lookout” for these issues. 1. The long arm of the Law Amendment. The open letter to SBC churches on a method to resurrect the Law Amendment virtually guarantees that someone will try it. Asked […]

Nate Adams

Between summits

Nate Adams

Those who know me or who have been reading this column for a while know that I am on a bit of a quest to climb as many of Colorado’s 14,000-foot mountains as possible. My oldest son, Caleb, and I have summited 37 “fourteeners” together, some with other family members. My wife, Beth, would be […]

Turning volunteers’ no’s into enthusiastic yes’s

Daniel Kim

In the third week of my internship, I was assigned to tear down chairs and tables after an event in our gym. Coming from a smaller church, I assumed I could handle it on my own—until I saw eight tables and 150 chairs that needed to be cleared. After three grueling hours, one thought kept […]

More Columns

SBC 2025: Back where we started

Illinois Baptist Staff

Dallas | Messengers to the 2025 Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting in Dallas June 10-11 arrived at the probability that motions from the floor on women and the pastorate, financial transparency, and the fate of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission would dominate the discussion. In the business sessions, they did. But in the end, […]

News

Pressley reelected

SBC: New and familiar faces elected

Lisa Misner

Dallas | Clint Pressley was reelected to a second one-year term as president of the Southern Baptist Convention on the first day of the Annual Meeting in Dallas June 10. And his new first vice president is an evangelist familiar to many because of triumph over significant disabilities. One candidate elected without opposition was presented […]

Jennifer Lyell dies after brief illness

HLGU opposes mandate

More News Stories

Mission

“While we have not yet arrived at the destination we envision, I believe we are clearly headed in the right direction,” said IMB President Paul Chitwood to trustees in the May 22 plenary session. IMB Photo

IMB trustees appoint new missionaries, elect first woman chair

Leslie Caldwell

Richmond | International Mission Board trustees approved 65 fully funded missionaries for appointment during their May 21-22 meeting near Richmond, Virginia. The missionaries approved for appointment will be recognized during a Sending Celebration on Tuesday, June 10, at 10:08 a.m. CDT in conjunction with the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Dallas. The event will […]

Metro East church plant hosts multiplication meeting

Sallateeska baptism demonstrates SBC connections

More Mission Stories

  • News
  • Mission
  • In Focus
  • Columns

Copyright © 2025 · Website by Megaphone Designs