More Than Enough {Guest Post}

Friends, you will be blessed today!  Our guest post comes from Kyle, a dear friend of ours who we met through mysterious life events.  Only because of Ryan and Kyle's gut issues did our worlds collide.  Kyle, his incredible wife Tiffany, Ryan and I "met" via Skype and a mutual friend in August-we've all been attached at the virtual hip ever since!  

Here's what I can tell you: Kyle and Tiffany love their radical Jesus through thick and thin!  Kyle will rile you up for the Lord with the truth of scripture, Tiffany will spur you on to encouragement and life with her servant's heart... and together they are going to rock this journey they are called to.

So without another moment's delay-dig into Kyle's incredible post today.  Be blessed!

My name is Kyle. I am from the lovely state of Washington. I am 28 years old. I am married to the most amazing woman in the world. I am aspiring to be the best teacher in the world. I love Jesus. I play basketball. I love to read. I am the oldest of my siblings. Oh and I have Ulcerative Colitis.

I put my disease last in the description of myself because for me it's important to remember that I have a disease, but I am not defined by my disease. It's a part of me, yes, and it's something I am not ashamed of, and will openly talk about it with anyone, but it is not who I am. Which is never an easy thing for other people to understand because a lot of the time people want to chat with me about my disease rather than about me, and when those conversations happen, I lovingly say, "How are you doing, tell me about you." : )

Carly and I have talked about me guest posting, and I just never could figure out what the heck I should talk about. I like to think of myself as a funny guy, but actually sitting down and writing something funny is a lot harder than I thought. So some of this may be more serious than funny, but if something funny comes out, Praise the Lord! Not me it's him anyways!

I was diagnosed in July of 2012, spent my entire August in the hospital, and have slowly been working my way back to my "new" normal of life since then. Ulcerative Colitis is an inflammatory bowel disease that affects the lower large intestines and colon, and when those get inflamed it is called a "flare." During my time walking through the world rocking from this disease, many questions have been raised in my mind of where this disease could have come from. Now doctors will tell you many different “theories” but let me share my list of how I believe I could have got UC.

1. Overly Happy- I feel like I am pretty happy dude and I think my body just got tired of the joy that is in my heart through the grace given through the cross of Jesus Christ and it decided that things needed to change. “Enough is Enough” my body said, “I need to take action, why not attack myself for no reason! That’ll show him!” What my body doesn’t know is that it is nothing but a “tent,” I am in it for 60, 70, who knows maybe 80 years and then Jesus is taking me home, giving me a new body and inviting me into the biggest party ever for all eternity! So body you ain’t stopping the “joy joy joy” that I got in my heart!

2. College Furniture – In my single bachelor days I accrued several pieces of furniture that were freely given to me. One of those being an orange recliner chair that was straight out of the 70’s, which I picked up in front of a house with a sign that said “free” on it! Terrorist attack right? They must of placed the disease on that chair knowing that some young college dude would scoop it up, I think it may have been an inside job by the U.S. Government.

3. Banquet TV dinners – Dating back once again to my college days, I indulged in the many different varieties that Banquet had to offer, from the Salisbury steak, to meatloaf, to fried chicken, to pizza, the 10 for 10 deal at Safeway was too good to refuse! Banquet knows how I couldn’t resist the beauty of microwavable dinners, must of came from that!

4. Popcorn off the Floor in elementary school - When I was in 3^rd grade our teacher had a popcorn day! And in my clumsy and awkward state of life I dropped my entire plate on the floor and you guessed it, I picked it up and ate it! Must have been something on that floor that triggered my body to attack itself some 20 years later!

5. Columbia River Water – I am from a town in WA called Kennewick, which is right on the mighty Columbia River. We spent a lot of time out on the Columbia growing up, inner tubing, wake boarding, and just swimming in the river. There were times when things happened and water got in my mouth and I may have swallowed several gulps of river water, now the Columbia is known as the freshest river this side the Mississippi, but maybe the h2o contained a little bit of UC and now here we are with it to blame!

6. Saturday Morning Cartoons – It’s always the thing to Blame! That dang Bugs Bunny and his hilarious antics may have been what did me in. One too many Road Runner escapes may have brought this disease upon my body!

7. Mad Cow Disease – I don’t know how they are related and I never have been infected with mad Cow disease, but somehow, someway, I believe the Mad Cow scare in the 90’s may have given me my Colitis.

In the end how I got my disease is not important, I have it right? And to sit and try to figure out how I got it doesn’t change the fact that it’s now a part of my life. The biggest thing I can do is figure out what the next step is, and for me the next step is not for me to take anyway, it’s for the Lord to guide and direct. I am fully in trust of Him! My life is not my own, I was bought by the blood of Jesus Christ and for me to try and figure this out on my own is just “foolishness,” as Solomon would say, “it’s chasing the wind.”

My 3 pieces of advice for anyone struggling with an invisible disease:

#1 - You got to get plugged into Jesus, this life is not worth trying to “do it” on your own. The things of this world are going to fail you, I got a body that attacks itself for no reason, f my hope is in my body it has seriously let me down! His grace is the only thing that can carry us through the worst situations and the best situations in our life. Our lives are not about us, but they are about the glory of God and allowing Him to work through every situation that we face, allowing His strength to show in our weakness, His might to show in our lows, and His grace to show in our failures.

#2 – Support is so crucial. Get people in your life who know what you are dealing with and going through and talk openly with them. Now make sure you can trust this person, kids this is important for you, but having someone who you can relate to is so HUGE in the battle. I know having a friend like Ryan who knows what I am dealing with has been in my battle with my disease.

Anyone who has UC there is a great web-site called www.ihaveuc.com where you can post questions, stories, or just read and connect with others who have Colitis.

 

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Also, for you married folk : ) Make sure you are finding someone for your spouse to connect with as well, they are usually having to be the Rock in the situation but they need to be talking with someone, so if you can find them someone of the same gender to connect with is so important in their life. Carly and my wife have been able to connect and it has been such a blessing for her to have someone to talk with who knows what they are dealing with and vice versa.

#3- Don’t sleep on the power of prayer! And if you are married you need to be praying with your spouse and let them know how they can be praying for you. Don’t be afraid to ask! God’s word is such a powerful weapon, pray the words of the Bible over your life, pray the promises of the Bible over your spouse too! They need support just like you need it.

Great little read for anyone interested is “God’s Creative Power forHealing” by Charles Capps.

In the end we are all part of God's plan, it's not about us, it's about Him and His glory. My heart for my life is that I am able to be used for His glory no matter my situation and I know for a fact that God is in this. He didn't give me this disease, it's a result of sin and the hatred that Satan has for the image of God that I bear, but God's promises are very real that he is working everything out for His good purpose in our lives. So if anything with this blog post, know this: Jesus loves us in our filth and mess, he loves you and me not on our best day but at our worst; he paid for my sins not because I had it all together but because there was no way I could ever be rid of my sin debt. HIS LOVE IS MORE THAN ENOUGH!

Thanks for Reading!

With JOY,
Ryan, Carly, Kyle & Tiffany