Thanksgiving Service

 Last year our church had a Thanksgiving service leading up to the holiday.  It was a special time of hearing from a few people recount God's grace that had brought them through.  We were all so encouraged that they decided they would make it a regular thing each year.  I was asked if I could share this year and I jumped at the opportunity.  I knew it would be physically challenging and take a lot out of me but I had no idea how much breath it would take out of me.  I was thankful for my pal Donna and her willingness to help be my voice.  It really is sweet to see the body help be my hands and feet and even my voice.  I was so grateful for the experience and wanted to share with you the transcript of our time.  I hope it blesses you to see God's faithfulness in the hard.

Good morning, Grace family. It’s my privilege to share this moment with my dear friend, Melody Lietzau. She’s already a dear friend to many of you and if you don’t already know her, you willwant to after you hear her speak from her heart. I’m going to ask some questions for Mel to answer. Here we go.

Mel, I have some idea of what it requires for you to be here. You tire quickly, It will likely take you two days to recover from your exertion this morning, you had to use the chair lift to get on the stage, you will need to use your ventilator to help your breathing and have a liquid meal between services – it’s not easy to do this! Why did you say yes?

I’m always so thankful for any and every opportunity to share about God’s goodness and Grace in my life and I want to do that for as long as the Lord will let me. This is also a great opportunity for me to publicly say thank you to my beautiful church family. I’m going to try my best to get through it without being a blubbering mess. There is just nothing I love more than to talk about the goodness of God and the wonderful Grace he’s poured out in my life. As I look around this congregation I’m overwhelmed by the love I continuously receive from you my church body. You all love so well and I have learned so much from so many of you about what it means to love others and to comfort others with the comfort you yourselves receive from the Lord, to weep with those who weep, and to give generously and sacrificially both with your gifts and time.

Mel, can you tell us about your family and how long you have been attending Grace?

Im married to my wonderful husband Jason and we have three kids. Noah is a student at Biola, Jonah is a senior in high school, and our beautiful Hannah who we had the privilege of adopting from China is a freshman in high school. We have had the privilege of being apart of Grace for over twenty years now. It is our family, Our Home. When we first attended this church I was not in this fancy chair and in fact I was running all over campus, walking up and down those front steps believe it or not. Getting down on the floor playing with the toddlers and babies in the nest. Even line dancing at the July 3rd picnic. I have had the incredible opportunity of sitting under incredible rich Gospel focused teaching. In that wonderful teaching I have been challenged continually to prepare my heart for suffering. I was often told from the pulpit if I wasn’t already experiencing suffering to prepare my heart that it would come eventually and was often challenged to ask where I was putting my hope. Was I putting my hope in the things of the world or in my sovereign savior? I look back and can see the ways the Lord was using HIS church to prepare me for the path of suffering that was to come.

Our family’s story is unique and filled with lots of grief, joy, redemption, God’s Grace, and lots of mercy.

 Sometimes people are afraid to ask, but you don’t mind sharing! As a matter of fact, you are really good at educating people. So, what exactly is your diagnosis?

I was diagnosed with a rare form of Muscular Dystrophy about 12 years ago. Hard to believe it’s actually been that long. It is a disease that I was born with but didn’t actually start showing symptoms until late adulthood. It has no cure and over time all the muscles in your body including your heart and lungs begin to weaken and start to lose function. It has already affected my heart leaving me with a pacer and defibrillator, my ability to walk, eat and swallow, my breathing and talking, and so much more. Having a progressive disease where your body slowly deteriorates over time is Hard. You are constantly faced with having to grieve loss and just when you begin to accept one loss you are hit with another one. It’s not just me who feel those losses but the people around me feel them as well and grieve for me. so often it can be difficult for people around me to accept and understand this.

What bible passage has been helpful for you as you live with a degenerative disease?

People lovingly ask and want to know if there is a fix for this. They want to know if I will ever get better or they will ask if I have seen any improvements in my condition. The answer I usually give is physically no but spiritually yes.
I often point them to a verse that has been one that I have leaned on and gained much hope from. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

I want them to understand that although my outer body is wasting away my inner body is being renewed day by day. This is the way God is putting his glory on display in my life. He is continually growing my heart and dependence on him. as I lean into him for strength and leading.

He really does draw near to the broken hearted and I think sometimes we can miss it as we are expecting him to take our hard completely away.

We have expectations in the way he draws near to us but the lord always draws near in the ways that he thinks are good for us.
Sometimes that means not taking the difficult away but helping us walk through it.

I’m so thankful that The Holy Spirit is continually working on the interior of my life and transforming my faith. Not only making me more like him but giving me a longing and a hope for heaven.

How have your thoughts about heaven changed?

I’m consumed every day with the thought of heaven. Tracy Manson and I would talk about that a lot. Most of you know Tracy. She was a member here at Grace who battled cancer and went home to be with the Lord recently.
Through our sufferings we created a special bond and we would spend time regularly together. We would often talk about how before our diagnosis there would be many days where we didn’t think much about eternity with our Heavenly Father. We went about our lives as busy moms and wives and didn’t really give it much thought. It’s not that we didn’t have eternal hope we just weren’t consumed by it. Walking a hard road of suffering puts you in position where it’s all you think about and long for and oh what a gift that is to be consumed by the hope of eternity. That is the grace that is bringing me through.

Mel, you shared with me that in an episode of season 3 of The Chosen, one scene really made an impact on you. It was when Little James approached Jesus to hesitantly ask a question. Little James’ body is crooked and he walks with a limp and a walking sick. After Jesus had just commissioned the other disciples to go out and heal the sick and the lame, Little James follows him out and has an emotional conversation with Jesus. Little James asks why Jesus had not healed him. Mel, how does the scene unfold and why did it make such an impact on you?

Rather than try to summarize the scene we are going to show a portion of the clip. I highly encourage you all to go home and watch the whole thing. The reason this made such an impact on me is because watching Jesus talk to little James I could relate. I felt every word he was saying. I felt like Jesus was directly speaking to me giving me and others the assurance that our suffering is not the void of God’s good for us. Lets take a look.

I feel this immense gratitude that the Lord has found me worthy of this calling and has trusted me with this hard diagnosis to help proclaim his goodness. I want to use every ounce of my suffering as a witness to the truth and glory of Christ.

I don’t want to waste any of it by complaining and being defeated by my circumstances and not thinking about my eternal hope. I desire to use it as an opportunity to show how glorious Christ is and how he is so much more important than anything else this world has to offer. I take comfort in Paul’s words in Philippians 4:16 when he says My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Gods grace is sufficient and The grace and peace of the Lord becomes beautiful to us when we recognize just how much we need it.

It’s important for me to look back and remember Gods faithfulness and look ahead to his promises of eternity with no pain and suffering and remember that it’s all light and momentary. Giving thanks to Christ that one day we will be healed. It’s only a matter of time.