Serving God With One Eyebrow

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The strong spirit of a man sustains him in bodily pain or trouble...
Proverbs 18:14

David Rabin was a professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University. When he was forty-six he was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's Disease. He knew what would happen. Stiffness in the legs, then weakness; paralysis of the lower limbs and then the upper. Eventually his body would no longer obey his commands. He could form words only with the greatest difficulty, and eventually not at all. He lost his ability to treat patients and could no longer go to the hospital to work. He would have had a brilliant academic career; now he couldn't even turn the pages of a book. But there was one thing he would not surrender: his spirit!

One day he heard from a fellow physician who also had Lou Gehrig's Disease, about a computer that could be operated by a single switch. That switch could be operated by anyone, however physically challenged, who retained the function of just one muscle group. David Rabin still had enough strength in one part of his body - his eyebrow. So for the next four years he used it to speak to his family, tell jokes, write papers and review manuscripts. He carried on a medical consulting practice. He taught medical students. He published a comprehensive textbook on endocrinology and achieved a prestigious award for his work. And he did it with the only thing he could control, a single eyebrow. The Bible says: 'The strong spirit of a man sustains him in bodily pain or trouble.' David Rabin proved that's true. With a spirit that refused to give up, and one eyebrow, he served God and blessed the world around him!

Used with permission from UCB Word for Today. Free issues are available here for the UK and Republic of Ireland.