How to Keep Your Problems in Perspective

Posted on May 31, 2016 Topic : Inspirational/Devotional, Men's Christian Living, Women's Christian Living
Posted by : Torry Martin

When Jenny Aiken woke up one morning...

...she told her parents she could barely see through her right eye. It was as if she were staring down a tunnel because, as they were soon to discover, the blood vessels in her eye had begun to hemorrhage.

This was the first serious manifestation of a syndrome Jenny had had since birth—Wyburn-Mason syndrome. She had too many blood vessels in her face, and many of them had weak walls, leading to the hemorrhaging.

Jenny’s parents are Jack and Ann Aiken, and Jack was my pastor during the magnificent years I lived in Alaska. Jack and Ann and their two daughters are remarkable people, because they handled some incredibly difficult situations with grace and faith. The troubles all started the very month that Jack took the pastorate at King’s Way Church, near Anchorage.

In addition to having to fly Jenny to an Army hospital in Tacoma, Washington, for major surgery, their oldest daughter, Angie, started showing symptoms of Klippel-Trenaunay-Weber syndrome, a separate condition that affects blood vessels, soft tissues, and bones. In Angie's case, her right leg had an excess of blood vessels, causing it to enlarge.

However, a significant portion of her problems resulted from an error during surgery, when the doctor accidentally cut the nerve to the top of her foot. An orthopedic surgeon repaired the damage, but while her foot was in a cast, the incision broke open and infection wreaked havoc in her leg. Years later, when the incision opened a second time, she was bedridden for five years.

Angie’s syndrome strikes about one in a million people, while Jenny’s syndrome afflicts one in ten million. Some in the medical community told the Aikens they had never seen a case before of one family being hit by both syndromes.

“There were times when I didn’t think I could cope,” Ann says, “but then it was like God would nudge my heart and tell me, ‘I will be with you.’ I knew I could trust God because of who He is and what He says He will do.”

In all, their two daughters underwent more than 60 surgeries between them, many of them requiring flights to the Lower 48 states for complicated operations and long stays. But through it all, Jack and Ann held on to God, and they held each other up, and their marriage became stronger.

Ann also says the troubles they faced helped them to put all other problems in perspective.

For instance, after Ann had been gone with one of their daughters for a long and difficult surgery, Jack took her out for a fancy halibut dinner—a welcome break from the stress. But as Ann looked down at the kale on her plate, she suddenly saw a worm poke its head out of the vegetable. “He was kind of waving at me,” she says.

Jack was about to call over the waiter, but Ann insisted that he do nothing of the kind. In the big scheme of life, a worm in the salad was no big deal, because their life had taught them what is really important and what is not. So Ann pushed aside the worm with her fork and continued eating. Since that meal, Jack and Ann have lived by the slogan, “Don’t let the worm of life get to you.”

Did I mention that my pastor and his wife are truly remarkable people?