Striving with All His Might to Live Christ
It was my great honor to serve our dear Brother Paul Wu medically during his two hospitalizations—last May to June, and this past Wednesday, March 4. There were two aspects of the brother that can be a good pattern to us!
Submitting to Suffering and Enjoying God's Grace
Although the brother had diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and kidney disease, and went through a kidney transplant and hemodialysis, he did not shrink back but still traveled back and forth to various places for the Lord's interests.
In December 2018, his heart disease suddenly struck on a plane, and he received CPR, ECMO, cardiac catheterization, and stents, just as 2 Corinthians 1:8-9 says: "we were excessively burdened, beyond our power, so that we despaired even of living. Indeed we ourselves had the response of death in ourselves, that we should not base our confidence on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead." But the Lord still did not give up our brother and led him from America back to Taiwan.
Last May, the brother had an abscess in his lower right abdomen; afraid to trouble the brothers serving in the medical field, he originally wanted to stay home and observe. The brothers informed me, and after fellowshipping with Brother Xiangguang, I immediately arranged for his hospitalization, and we found it was a subcutaneous infection after the earlier ECMO catheter was removed. Miraculously, the pus drained only outward and not into the abdominal cavity; otherwise it would surely have caused sepsis! As 2 Corinthians 4:8 says, "we are pressed on every side but not constricted; unable to find a way out but not utterly without a way out." The brother indeed, by submitting to God's sovereign arrangement, experienced and enjoyed God's marvelous grace in his suffering.
Striving with All His Might to Live Christ
This past Wednesday, March 4, at 8:40 in the evening, the brother was admitted to the hospital, accompanied by Sister Wu and the brothers, because of low blood pressure and general discomfort; on admission his blood pressure was only 56/39 mmHg, and the electrocardiogram and blood report showed myocardial ischemia, suspected of being a heart attack. He was given oxygen therapy, the cardiology department was consulted, and an intensive care bed was arranged. However, at 11:10 in the evening his heart suddenly stopped; CPR was begun immediately, and at 11:40 his heartbeat was restored; at 1:10 on March 5 he underwent CPR again until his heartbeat was restored at 2:00; at 2:30 he was transferred out of the ward, at 2:40 he entered the cardiac intensive care unit, and his heart stopped again; CPR was continued, and at last, at 3:54, he rested in the Lord's bosom! Three consecutive rounds of CPR are truly beyond what an ordinary person can bear; the grace and power the brother experienced were not the healing of the outward sickness, but the resurrected Christ, who became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; Gal. 2:20), dwelling in the brother as his deepest enjoyment.
The brother's whole life indeed testified to Philippians 4:6-7: "In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses every man's understanding, will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus." Although the brother has temporarily left us to be forever with the Lord whom he loved all his life, even in the plight of sickness and pain he still bore a beautiful testimony for the Lord and left a beautiful pattern for his family and the saints, inspiring us to love the Lord and love the church with all our might all our life.