May 27, 2022 Show with Kevin Olson on “Learning to Live With It”

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Live from the historic parsonage of the 19th century gospel minister George Norcross in downtown

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Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron. This is a radio platform in which pastors,

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Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today.

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Proverbs 27, verse 17 tells us, Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

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Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed with whom we converse and directed to have a view in conversation to make one another wiser and better.

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It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next two hours and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions.

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And now, here's your host, Chris Arnzen. Good afternoon,

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Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet

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Earth who are listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com. This is

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Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Friday on this 27th day of May 2022.

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And I just want to thank everybody at the Banner of Truth for the warm, enthusiastic welcome

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I received at the Banner of Truth East Coast Ministers Conference, which took place

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Tuesday through Thursday of this week, which is why I was running reruns those days.

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I was greeted by so many in attendance at the conference whom

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I have never before met or heard from, who were thanking me for how much this program means to them.

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I was overwhelmed by it. I was truly humbled by it and was praising

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God for it. And for the encouragement God gave me through those wonderful words of greeting from so many of you in attendance, and if you're listening today,

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I just want to thank all of you for that. You'll never know how much that encourage means to me and how much a part of that encouragement basically drives me to continue hosting this program.

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And it seems that every year when I attend these conferences across the country to represent

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Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, more and more and more people who are in attendance at these conferences all over the

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United States approach me, have to recognize me, and thank me for the show. In fact, that's especially true with Banner of Truth.

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The first year I was there, it was probably only a few people in attendance who thanked me, who recognized me, and thanked me for the program.

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This time around, it was 20 or more at least who approached me, and I just thank

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God for it. And I highly recommend the Banner of Truth conferences. They have them on the

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West Coast as well, and they have them in the U .K. Just go to BannerofTruth .org, BannerofTruth .org

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to find out more about these events and about this publishing ministry that publishes some truly extraordinary books from the past and present.

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Well, today, speaking of books, Mike Gaydosch, the founder of Solid Ground Christian Books, Solid -Ground -Books .com,

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who sponsored this program, Mike Gaydosch contacted me several weeks ago, and he said,

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You've got to get Kevin Olson on your program. And I always take

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Mike's recommendation very seriously. He was once my pastor. He actually baptized me in the 1980s, and I have always highly respected his discernment, his opinion, and his friendship.

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Well, I immediately contacted Kevin Olson, who

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Mike recommended, and thanks be to God, Kevin agreed to be on the broadcast, and he is on with us today for the very first time ever on this program.

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He was once an all -state high school basketball player who became paralyzed from the shoulders down as a result of a diving accident, which anyone who knows

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Johnny Erickson Tata knows that that's exactly what happened to her. And we're going to be addressing

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Kevin Olson's book, Learning to Live With It, and it's my honor and privilege to welcome you for the first time ever to Iron Trip and Zion Radio, Kevin Olson.

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Hey, good afternoon, Chris. Well, Kevin, we have a tradition here on Iron Trip and Zion Radio.

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Whenever we have a first -time guest, before we get into the heart of the theme that we intend to discuss, we always have that guest, if he or she is on for the first time, give a summary of their salvation testimony, and that would include the kind of religious atmosphere, if any, they were raised in, and the kind of providential circumstances their sovereign

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Lord raised up in their lives that drew them to himself and saved them.

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And that would include you today, Kevin, so please give us a summary of your salvation story.

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All right, well, thank you for the opportunity to be here and to share the story today.

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It's interesting how God will prepare you for things because I've actually been thinking quite a bit about the time when

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I became a Christian, and then I was just thinking about the incredible miracles that happened, you know, on the inside of a person.

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I can remember my dad, one time after I, oh, a year or two after I'd become paralyzed, you know, we were wanting a physical miracle, and he said, you know, the greatest miracle that's happened in my son, and I overheard him telling somebody else this, is what has happened on the inside of him.

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And he was talking, you know, about the ability to be able to, again, learn to live with or accept the paralysis.

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But, you know, I don't think any of that would have been possible in the way that it has, had

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I not, you know, as a seven -year -old boy at the little country church in Kansas that I grew up in, had

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I not heard the gospel message in such a way to where I realized that I was a sinner, that Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sin, and that He wanted to be my

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Savior, be my Lord. And so I realized and recognized my need to accept Him at a young age, at a vacation

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Bible school, and from that time on, you know, I believe that God's Spirit, the

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Holy Spirit has lived in me and has been working in me Obviously, you know, there's been times where I kind of, you know, rebelled during those teenage years and tried to go my own way, but I feel like God, like a loving

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Father, has just always, you know, been there and never given up on me and I've never doubted

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His love for me that He expressed through Christ. You know, sometimes

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I talk to people and they're like, well, how do we know that God loves us? How do we know that He loves me?

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Well, He expressed His love in such a way that when we were yet sinners, you know,

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Christ died for us. That's how God chose to show His love to us, you know, in just one way.

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And so, you know, I realized that at a young age and I'm just so grateful that that was a part of my life, going to church and hearing the

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Word of God from a very young age. I think that is an incredible story just in the way that it happened.

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About three years before I was born, our preacher, who at the time didn't even have a church, he just felt called, was driving down a country road in the middle of southeast

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Kansas. He'd never been to southeast Kansas. It's farm country and it's just a house about every mile or so once you get out in the country in this area.

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And he was just driving along praying, asking God for direction, and he came across a little empty church building.

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And he drove up the lane and he found my great -grandma, who just threw her hands up and said, praise the

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Lord, when he came and said that he wanted to start a church because there was an empty building there on her farm that she was just praying that somebody would come and start a church there.

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So my mom, who grew up in that neighborhood, that country area there, we were all farmers.

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Her parents and my dad's parents were farmers and we became farmers as well. They all grew up in that area.

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They started going to church there. And then when I was about three years old, we bought a farm that was right adjacent to that church building.

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And so we started going to church there. And it was just incredible how God prepared the way for me to be able to hear the gospel message and then give me an opportunity to respond to it.

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And like I said, the greatest miracle that's happened in my life has been what's happened on the inside.

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And I can remember the day I came home from that vacation Bible school. I was outside playing in the yard, swinging on our own swing set, and I can remember it just like it was yesterday.

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I went in and I told my mom, I said, Mom, I feel like a new man. I had no idea really what

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I was saying and didn't grasp the depth of what happened. The Holy Spirit came to live inside of me.

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I'm sure I understood it to a certain extent, but not the way that I do now. But I did.

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I told her, Mom, I feel like a new man. So that was the beginning of my relationship with God there, and it's just been a blessing and helped me out so much throughout my life.

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Well, praise God. And so tell us about those days as a high school star athlete, a student that graduated at the top of your class, and since you're not

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Joe Biden, I believe you. But if you could tell us about those days before the accident, what your life was like, what your friendships were like, what your interests were like, whether you were a truly committed

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Christian at that time, or just explain more about what was your mindset, your dreams, and your likes and dislikes during that time.

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Well, I was a sports lover. I loved baseball and basketball. I kind of got that from my dad because he was the same, and he kind of pushed me in that direction.

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But he also spent a lot of time with me, teaching me how to play and how to work hard.

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And I had grandparents around that were supportive of me there too. So I learned a lot of things about how to work hard in sports, and we also worked a lot on the farm.

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And so there was always cows and pigs, and we raised wheat and milo, soybeans, put up a lot of hay.

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So we had a lot of chores to do, pig to feed and that kind of thing. So there wasn't really a lot of time to just be lazy,

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I guess. But during those days of growing up, I wouldn't trade those for anything now because I feel like they shaped me in a lot of ways to make me who

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I am today. I'd say as far as spiritually, once I got to be about 13 years old,

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I was more interested in friends. And by 14 or so, became more interested in what girl was cute and that type of thing.

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But really kind of just told God that there were some things

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I wanted to do with my life, and I wanted Him in my life. But I wasn't quite sure that I wanted

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Him in the driver's seat, if you know what I mean. So I tell people that I really just didn't know that I wanted

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Him in charge because there were some things that I wanted to do. I had some hopes and dreams.

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I think every kid dreams of being a professional baseball player or basketball player, and not very many people get to do that.

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And I realized throughout my teenage years that that probably wasn't going to be a reality for me.

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But it was still an important part of my life, and I did try to work hard at it, and I enjoyed it a lot, being an athlete.

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But once I got into college, I wanted to be an accountant at first. And ironically,

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I didn't continue with accounting because I thought, you know, there's no way I could sit still long enough behind a desk every day to be an accountant.

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So maybe I should have stuck with that because sitting still at a desk is pretty easy for me to do nowadays.

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But I started college thinking that I wanted to get married, get a job, and just have a farm of my own and just kind of build a life of my own.

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And I think that desire to be independent is kind of what drove me at that point in my life.

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And really, I didn't even realize that in my desire to be independent and out on my own,

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I was kind of also telling God, you know what, I can handle this on my own. I want to do my own thing and really didn't lean on him for a whole lot of direction.

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It was more of a, you know, I want you along in my life in case I get in trouble.

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But don't tell me a whole lot about what to do and how to live my life.

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So what were the circumstances surrounding your diving accident? I'm assuming that you were out for some recreational swimming, and I don't know if it was in a swimming pool or in the bay or ocean or a lake, but you likely,

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I'm assuming, dived into shallow water unbeknownst to you. Tell us about that. Well, here in southeast

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Kansas we have a lot of reservoirs that we can go and boat in, water ski in, swim in, that type of thing.

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And I remember about 10 years old, my grandparents bought a boat and they took us water skiing for the first time.

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And I didn't think I liked it very well. And it took a few times to really get to the point where I could do it.

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In fact, on the day that I did actually learn to water ski, I had told my dad and my parents that I wasn't going to try again.

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And he actually picked me up out of the boat, threw me in the water. You are going to try this again.

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I did it. I actually water skied that day for a half mile or so without falling down.

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And I came home and told my grandparents how much I loved it. And so we ended up going to the lake quite a bit as a kid and through the teenage years.

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And this one particular lake we went to is in Toronto, Kansas, which is in the southeast corner.

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But it's one of those things where by 19 years old, they were letting me take the boat and take a few friends and go.

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And so I can remember it was a Sunday after church that three of the guys that I hauled hay with worked with out on the farm.

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We loaded up and went out to the lake. One of them took a jet ski and another guy took his motorcycle and I took the pickup in the boat.

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And we were just out there having a good time. We weren't doing anything we weren't supposed to be doing, no drinking, no drugs, no anything like that.

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Just out having a good time. We stayed the night that night. We didn't even think far enough ahead to take food and things that we'd actually need for a camping trip.

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Just a few 19 -year -old guys with a wild idea to go stay the night at the lake.

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We woke up the next morning and I can remember it just being a beautiful day. The sun was coming up.

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It was July in Kansas. You could tell it was going to be a hot day. We had some work to do later that day on one of the ranches where we hauled hay.

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We knew we just had a couple hours to spend there. I woke up and thanked

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God for giving me that day. We hit the lake and went out and jet skied, water skied a little bit.

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I'd been trying to learn how to barefoot ski. That day I told myself

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I was going to do it. I knew if I worked hard at it and tried it enough that I would be able to do it.

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It was my approach to many things in life back then. I went out and I remember

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I got behind the boat. My friend

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Trent was driving. I yelled go and grabbed hold of the rope tight and closed my eyes.

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The next thing I knew I'm scooting across the water barefoot skiing about 40 miles an hour. I don't know if any of you have ever done that or tried that, but it's a pretty amazing feeling.

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It makes you feel invincible like you could do anything. I tell kids at 19 years old a young man doesn't need a whole lot of encouragement to feel invincible.

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That's kind of how I felt that day. It felt like nothing could ever happen to me that I couldn't handle.

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Just a matter of an hour later, we were packing up the equipment to go home.

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I got in my truck, pulled the trailer over to the boat ramp, and I backed it down into the water, got out of the truck, and started to walk around to where we had camped because that's where the boat was at.

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The campsite and the boat ramp was probably a couple hundred feet away from each other, but there was a boat dock right in between the two.

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I saw that boat dock and thought I could just run and dive off of there and swim over to where the boat was, grab the boat, drive it over onto the trailer, load it up, and off we go home and back to work.

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Well, I ran and dove off that dock without ever thinking of the consequences. Being a kid who'd been to that lake hundreds of times,

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I just automatically assumed that the water was going to be about the same depth that it normally was, which is four, five, six feet deep, enough to do a swimmer's dive and just keep going without hitting the bottom.

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But on that particular day, the water was only about two, three feet deep, and the water in Kansas and those types of lakes is not clear, so you can't see the bottom.

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So I ran and dove, and I remember it sounded like somebody just took a shotgun and pulled the trigger right beside my head.

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Wow. A loud snap and pop, and the bones inside my neck, the fifth vertebrae, the doctor said it shattered into thousands of pieces.

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Wow. And my spinal cord was just severed immediately. So I lay there, and as I'm laying there,

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I'm thinking, I need to roll myself over. I knew something had happened. Something was really wrong.

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Now, were you under the water at this point? Yeah, I'm face down in about three feet of water, and I'm trying to tell my arms and my legs to move so I can roll myself over to breathe, and I couldn't get my arms and legs to respond.

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Wow. And I'm assuming that your friends then realized, this guy's not coming up.

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Is that what happened? Yeah. There were a couple of them that were over by the campsite, and the other one was loading up his jet ski pretty close to where I had backed the pickup and the trailer down into the water.

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But I wasn't really sure if they had watched me or if they saw me. As I'm laying there face down,

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I'm holding my breath, obviously. You know that feeling you get when you're underwater, and you're trying to hold your breath for as long as you can before you come up.

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That's kind of what it felt like, only I couldn't come up. And I began to think really quickly about a lot of different things.

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My life just kind of flashed before my eyes, like they say. I thought about my family and my friends and all the things that I had done and the things

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I wanted to do. And I tell people that I probably sounded a little bit more like an attorney begging for the judge not to enforce some kind of a penalty on a client, more than it sounded like I was praying.

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But I was just begging God to give me a chance to live and tell him

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I didn't want to die. I held my breath for as long as I could, sucked in a bunch of water, held my breath for as long as I could again, sucked in more water, and really thought that that was going to be the end.

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And I remember I felt like Jonah, maybe in the belly of the whale. And there's a verse in there that I can always relate to where it says, his soul fainted and he remembered the

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Lord. And I always wonder if maybe after a couple days of trying to get out of the belly of that whale, when his soul fainted, if he didn't just give up and say, you know what, okay,

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God, here I am. I'm not going to be able to get out of this problem unless you help me.

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And that's kind of how I felt. And that's what I told God. I was like, God, I need your help. I said, I don't want to die.

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Will you help me? And it wasn't much longer after that that I heard water splashing around me. And the guy who was loading up his jet ski, he jumped in and he rolled me over.

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And he had enough training to know that I probably had a head or neck injury just to roll me over and hold me stable in the water while the other guys went to call the ambulance.

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Now, was this one of your friends or was it just some stranger you happened to meet providentially nearby? No, it was a friend that was with me.

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We worked together out on the farm for a couple summers in a row. All three were good friends that were there with me.

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Wow. Well, we're going to be returning after our first break. And if anybody has a question for Kevin, please send it to ChrisArnzen at gmail .com.

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That's C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com. Please give us your first name at least, your city and state of residence, and your country of residence if you live outside the

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USA. Only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter. Let's say you are dealing with a disability or a serious illness or someone that you love is, and you're probably going through some kind of a conflict of faith.

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Maybe some of you have even lost your faith, and you don't want to identify yourself at this point.

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Well, I understand reasons like that that compel you to remain anonymous. But if it's just a general question, please give us at least your first name, your city and state, and your country of residence.

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And don't go away. We're going to be right back with Kevin Olson right after these messages from our sponsors.

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Tell the folks at Hope Reform Baptist Church of Coram, Long Island, New York, that you heard about them from Tony Costa on Iron Sharpens Iron.

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I look forward to seeing you there. We're now back with our guest today, David Olson, and he is a quadriplegic.

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He is a Christian first and foremost, and he is—I'm sorry, I said David Olson, I'm sorry, it's

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Kevin Olson. I was just remembering that I had to return the call of a friend named

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David. Kevin Olson, who is the author of Learning to Live With It, and if you'd like to ask a question of Kevin, send it to chrisarnzen at gmail .com,

34:32

chrisarnzen at gmail .com. Give us your first name at least, your city and state, and your country of residence if you live outside the

34:39

USA. Only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter. And before we get to some of our audience questions,

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I just have several more of my own. First of all, what was your immediate reaction after the initial shock of all of this settled, and you became fully aware of your subsequent medical condition, physical condition as a result of your injuries?

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And how early on after your accident, this tragic accident, did you hear from your physicians that you will likely be a quadriplegic for the rest of your life?

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Well, when they took me to the emergency room from the lake via the ambulance, we got there, and one of the things they wanted to know was, do you want us to call your mom?

35:42

And of course I was like, no, don't call my mom, because I was going to be fine.

35:48

You know, I was going to walk out of there, had a bad headache or whatever. And I was kind of going back and forth in and out of, you know,

35:56

I wasn't unconscious, just in a daze I guess. But they did some x -rays there and decided to send me to Kansas City, and of course obviously they did call my mom at some point in there, because both her and my dad showed up in Kansas City at the hospital.

36:14

So they really didn't tell me a whole lot the first two or three days.

36:19

It was just a bunch of tests and x -rays, and I'm sure they probably told my parents more than they told me, but I don't really remember a lot of those first couple days.

36:29

But it was probably about a week after I got there that they, you know,

36:35

I kept telling them I'm going to walk out of here. And the doctor came in one day and he said, I'll never forget it.

36:41

His name was Dr. Olson. He said, son, we've done everything we can to fix the bones in your neck, and we've rebuilt that broken vertebrae, and we've fused these four, five, and six together.

36:57

He said, but your spinal cord is severed. And he said, chances are you'll never be able to walk again.

37:04

And that's, I think, when it first hit me that, wow, this was a pretty serious deal.

37:11

The consequences were a little bit more severe than what I really realized that they were going to be.

37:18

And obviously, you know, at that age and being a 19 -year -old that wanted to be independent, that was kind of my main goal in life at that point.

37:30

You know, being confined to a bed and told I was not going to be able to get out of it was not what

37:38

I wanted to hear. Nobody plans on or hopes and dreams, you know, about being paralyzed and having those kinds of limitations.

37:48

So, you know, I was devastated. I was depressed, discouraged. But, you know,

37:55

I didn't really have a whole lot of choice at that point. Other than just to, you know, to try to find a way to accept it and try to find a way to deal with it.

38:08

And I cried a lot. You know, I had a lot of questions for God. My family and friends and people, you know, were there to try to help support me and try to, you know, tell me things.

38:20

Like I can do all things through Christ. Romans 8, 28, that we know God works all things together for good, and then we love

38:27

Him and are called according to His purpose. But to be honest with you, I really didn't see how

38:34

God could have any of this and work any of this out for good.

38:41

So I was really just kind of negative there for a little while and kind of quiet and just waited.

38:49

You know, hoping that things would get better. Maybe the doctor was wrong. Maybe the doctor was wrong, you know.

38:56

Now, as far as your faith is concerned, things like this have been a testing ground for many countless individuals throughout history.

39:10

Those that have professed to be Christians, but in reality were not.

39:17

On occasion, this really, as it were, separates the men from the boys, as the saying goes, where they will begin to immediately or soon after hate

39:30

God, reject God, abandon their faith. You have some that in an unbelievably short period of time, their faith even grows stronger than it ever was.

39:44

And then you have those that will be sort of a combination of the two.

39:51

They are truly regenerate. They are among God's people in truthfulness, but they do go through a season of total discouragement, perhaps even anger with God, but they never reach the point of apostasy.

40:05

They never reach the point of cursing and abandoning God. And eventually it makes their faith stronger and their lives even better than they imagined.

40:14

So where in that spectrum were you? Obviously you didn't abandon the faith, but among the latter two descriptions, and perhaps you even have a different category of your own that you'd like to share, but where were you when it came to your reaction as a

40:30

Christian? Well, it was hard to accept and understand.

40:36

But I will tell you that for about six months before the accident happened, it happened in July of 1991.

40:49

It had been a period of time in my life where I was doing a little bit of soul searching, and like I said,

40:56

I did want God in my life. And so I knew that I needed

41:02

Him in my life. After this happened, and lying there in the hospital bed,

41:08

I really kind of came to the conclusion pretty quickly that if I gave up on God, that I'd really have nothing left at all.

41:16

I felt like I'd been stripped of everything that really had made me me, you know, the self -worth

41:23

I got from working and being an athlete and that type of thing. It was gone. And so I knew that I didn't want to turn my back on God.

41:35

I didn't want to give up on Him. But the process of, I guess, accepting and being able to see that God could work something out for good in such a way that would glorify

41:48

Him kind of came over time and definitely not immediate, because there was a little bit of time there.

41:56

I was bitter and angry and had a lot of questions for God. And I suppose, you know, that I guess just the words that I had received as a little kid, you know, when the doctor came in and said

42:12

I'd never walk again, one of the first things that popped into my mind was the promise of how that, you know, when we get to heaven, we're going to get new bodies.

42:24

We'll never get sick, never grow old, never wear out. And so I understood that and I knew that.

42:30

I just kind of clung to that hope. And, you know, I knew that even the very worst thing happened to me after the fact that it happened, because there were some moments when

42:40

I got pneumonia and some complications from, you know, sucking in all that lake water and not being able to breathe on my own, being on a ventilator, not being able to talk, not being able to eat, that, you know, my life is kind of pretty fragile.

42:58

And I hung in the balance there for a while. So, you know, I felt like if I gave up on God, then

43:03

I would really truly have nothing left. So I didn't want to give up on him. And I tell people that I just kind of decided at some point that,

43:12

God, I don't know where we're going here, but I'm going to trust you. Praise God.

43:20

We have a listener from Findlay, Ohio, Cindy, who says,

43:26

Hello, Chris and Kevin. Thank you, Kevin, for being a guest on Chris's show and sharing your story. I look forward to the rest of the show and hearing how

43:34

God has worked in you and through you for his glory. My question is, I assume at one point, and maybe even on a somewhat ongoing basis, you have struggled with pride in one sense, which would be this.

43:49

Some find it difficult to rely on others for help and assistance in many areas of life.

43:56

I would assume that the same would be true in your case. How has

44:01

God worked in you? I think it would take much humility for a strong man to realize and accept his dependence on others.

44:11

It would be quite the maturing process. Wow, that's a profound question that I don't think

44:16

I would have thought of myself. So what's your response to that? Well, first of all,

44:22

I appreciate the question. I'd say that whoever asked that question definitely has some insight into what it would take, because it is tough to wake up every day being faced with the fact that you can't even get out of bed unless somebody shows up to get you out of bed.

44:47

You can't even get a drink or scratch your nose or do anything unless there's somebody there to help you do it.

44:56

Talk about the contrast from being a 19 -year -old independent guy to a guy who is totally dependent on everything.

45:09

Talk about a way to squash a young man's pride. But looking at it now,

45:18

I'm 50 years old, and I just tell it like it is.

45:23

God hates pride, and He wants us to depend on Him for every little thing in our lives.

45:33

Looking back on it now, I can see through the whole process that, yeah, sometimes pride still pops up in my life.

45:42

It has taught me to depend on Him in such an amazing way. Amen. And Cindy concludes her email, and even though it may be trying and taxing on caregivers,

45:56

I think I personally would see it as an opportunity to show great sacrifice and love. What are your thoughts on all those things?

46:04

And she is specifically in that part of her email addressing caregivers. You know, it is an amazing way for people to show love and support to me by coming over and doing things that I can't do for myself.

46:24

They are essentially my hands and my feet on a daily basis.

46:32

So it's a way that I've found that people have served me. And through watching people serve me,

46:41

I feel like it's even challenged me to be a better servant to others and to God in a way that I can.

46:49

So God gives us opportunities all the time to serve Him and to serve others.

46:56

And I've been blessed to have a lot of caregivers who do look at it that way to where they're given an opportunity to serve

47:06

God by serving me. Now, I haven't always liked the fact that, you know, for whatever reason

47:12

God put me in that position to be the one being served because, you know,

47:17

I think God, what a great thing it would be if I could get out of this wheelchair and everybody would see this wonderful miracle.

47:24

But, you know, it is what it is, and God has worked.

47:31

And I continue just to trust that He knows what is best for my life. And I'm definitely blessed by the people who have come alongside and helped me.

47:41

I'm married today to a wonderful woman who has committed her life to being here for me every day as well.

47:53

Hallelujah! Now, did you, by God's providence, by God's wonderful, gracious providence, meet this woman before or after your accident?

48:05

You know, we met before. After my eighth grade year of school,

48:11

I went to a summer basketball camp with a couple of my other eighth grade teammates.

48:18

And we happened to run into this young lady from a different town.

48:26

And she says that I kind of blew her off or snubbed her off at a basketball camp.

48:34

But I also told her that at that point in my life, life was about basketball and I wasn't too interested in girls.

48:42

But I did tell her that she's the only girl that I remembered from the camp.

48:47

So, you know, we did meet then and kind of cross paths a couple times throughout the next,

48:54

I don't know, three or four years because of basketball and then reconnected about 12 years ago after a few, well, after many years of being paralyzed, we reconnected and then dated for about four years.

49:13

And then I proposed on the beach in St. Augustine and we got married.

49:21

Well, that is something definitely to praise God for. Not only you, who obviously is praising

49:27

God more than anybody for that blessing, but it is such an encouragement, even as an outsider, to hear of God's goodness to you in that regard.

49:40

Because that was one of those things that, you know, when my accident happened, I thought, you know, there's no way that I was ever going to be able to be married.

49:50

But it's just been an amazing thing. Well, that should be also a reason for hope for many of our listeners who may be struggling with depression, loneliness, even bitterness that they are single much longer than they want to be and that God will provide, if that is indeed

50:16

His will. Obviously, it's not His will that every person be married. But with God, there is always reason for hope and to rejoice in any circumstance that He places us in through His providence and sovereignty.

50:34

And that's just such wonderful news. We have another listener,

50:40

Ronald in Eastern Suffolk County, Long Island, who says, I understand that your title of your book is

50:49

Learning to Live With It. That is a very bold title, but you are the one in the circumstance of being paralyzed.

50:57

Don't you think that those of us who are listening need to be extremely cautious and careful and tender and compassionate before using that kind of a phrase to those who have found themselves in the tragic condition that you found yourself in?

51:15

For us to blurt out, learn to live with it to someone might be the highest form of cruelty.

51:22

What do you think? Well, I think that's probably right, because just to say somebody learned to live with it when they're going through a tough time, it doesn't come across,

51:35

I guess, as real sympathetic, compassionate, because when you're in the midst of that unwanted circumstance, especially when it's new, and particularly myself,

51:49

I didn't want to learn to live with paralysis. It wasn't what I wanted to hear from people. I wanted

51:54

God to change my circumstance. I wanted Him to heal me. And so when

52:01

I say learning to live with it, my story is kind of a process.

52:09

And I tell people this often, that acceptance is a process. I didn't just wake up one day after this happened and say, okay,

52:18

I've accepted it. Now let's go on. It was a process in which God used

52:24

His Word. He used people. He used experiences. The Holy Spirit, obviously, worked a great miracle in my life.

52:34

So there was just a lot of things that came into play to really get me to the point where I felt like I was able to learn to live with it.

52:44

And if we were going to be honest, I'd say there are still times, what's it been now, 30, 31 years since the accident happened that I wake up and I don't want to be paralyzed every day.

53:00

But I am, and so I kind of go through that process of learning to accept it and decide each day when

53:06

I get up, you know what, I'm going to accept this and go on and try to make the most out of my life.

53:11

And really learning to live with it, the first step was acceptance and just trusting

53:19

God, saying, okay, God, whatever you have for my life, wherever you want to take me, wherever you're leading me, wherever we're going to go, it's going to be okay because I know that you love me.

53:30

I know you're a loving Father who wants the very best for me. And so because I had that view of God, I feel like I was able to have that outlook on my circumstances.

53:44

And then later it became, okay, how can I really live, you know, really live life, not just accept it but get out and do something, get out and make something out of my life and out of my circumstances.

53:59

In fact, if you could pick up right up on that very important point when we return from our midway break, not just accepting it but learning how to live life to its fullest and to the glory of God.

54:11

If anybody has any questions, send them to ChrisArnson at gmail .com. This is the longer the normal break, so please be patient with us, folks.

54:18

And we'll be right back right after these messages from our sponsors. Please don't go away.

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Attention all men in ministry leadership. You're all invited to my friend Chris Arnzen's Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Free Pastors Luncheon Thursday, September 22nd, 11am to 2pm at Church of the

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Hello, my name is Anthony Uvino, and I'm one of the pastors at Hope Reform Baptist Church in Quorum, New York, and also the host of the reformrookie .com

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If you live near Franklin, Tennessee and Franklin is just south of Nashville, maybe 10 minutes or you are visiting this area or you have friends and loved ones nearby we hope you will join us some

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This is Pastor Bill Sousa wishing you all the richest blessings of our

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Good to be back. Chris, I always enjoy our time here. I have to tell you, you're one of the better interviewers out there and I've been doing this for more than 30 years.

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Wow, that's some compliment. How much do I owe you for that? You don't have to owe me anything.

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01:12:20

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01:13:14

Before I return to Kevin Olson, a quadriplegic Christian who has written a book called

01:13:20

Learning to Live With It, I have just a couple of more very important announcements to make.

01:13:27

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01:13:36

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01:13:43

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01:13:59

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01:14:06

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01:14:14

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01:14:24

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01:14:56

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01:15:16

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01:15:48

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01:16:07

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01:16:12

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01:16:19

Last but not least, if you're not a member of a solid Christ -honoring, doctrinally faithful church, no matter where on the planet

01:16:29

Earth you live, I have extensive lists of faithful churches spanning the globe and may be able to help you find a church, as I have already done, with many listeners all over the planet

01:16:39

Earth in our audience. So if you are in that predicament of not having a faithful church home that is honoring to Christ in the scriptures, or you know someone that you love and care about in that position, then send me an email to ChrisOrenson at gmail .com.

01:16:58

ChrisOrenson at gmail .com and put I need a church in the subject line. That's also the email address where you can send in a question to Kevin Olson on his book

01:17:08

Learning to Live With It, which chronicles how his faith gave him victory over his circumstances being a quadriplegic.

01:17:20

And I also want to remind or inform Cindy from Findlay, Ohio, and I believe it was

01:17:30

Ronald from Eastern Suffolk County, Long Island, that you have each won a free copy of this book,

01:17:35

Learning to Live With It, thanks to the generosity of our guest Kevin Olson. So please provide your full mailing addresses and we can get those books out to you.

01:17:44

Thanks to our friends at CVBBS .com, Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service, who will ship those books out to you at no cost to us or to you.

01:17:55

We are back, Kevin, and you were really just beginning to discuss how you went from merely coming to grips with the physical condition that you would likely have to remain in for the rest of your life on earth.

01:18:19

You transcended from that place to actually learning to live life to its fullest and to the glory of God in those circumstances.

01:18:29

If you could continue what you were saying before the break. Yeah, sure. I thought of a story

01:18:35

I wanted to share while we were on break. The last caller mentioned something about sharing the word live with it to somebody who might be going through a circumstance and how that may sound kind of harsh in some ways.

01:18:50

I wanted to, I guess, kind of go back and tell you how I got the title, Learning to Live With It, because it's all kind of intertwined.

01:19:00

The way that God worked in my life after I became paralyzed, I feel like is just miraculous, especially the way

01:19:08

He used little people, kids. I eventually went on to work in a grade school at a youth center to be a youth pastor.

01:19:18

I worked around a lot of kids, but probably the first thing that happened that I thought was real profound was

01:19:25

I was sitting in the backyard of my mom's house, and I'm the oldest of five siblings, and the youngest one is 19 years younger than me.

01:19:36

And so when I became paralyzed, he was just learning how to walk. So a couple years down the road after I'd been through nine months in the hospital and in rehab at Craig Hospital in Denver, Colorado, they taught me how to use a

01:19:55

Sip and Puff wheelchair, and they taught me how to use a mouse stick. At that time, computers were just kind of coming onto the scene, but the voice -activated ones were really expensive.

01:20:06

So I really just didn't know what I was going to do when I came home. And my friends were playing ball and working on the farm, and so it was kind of a tough adjustment, and I just began to pray and ask

01:20:17

God to show me what it was that I was supposed to do. And so I kind of went up and down like a roller coaster at times, feeling like I was going to be able to live a good, worthwhile life.

01:20:29

And sometimes, you know, I'd get in these moods where I'd have my pity parties and think, you know,

01:20:34

I don't want to have to live the rest of my life this way. And so it was kind of up and down there a little bit.

01:20:39

But, you know, I'd always go back to that moment underwater when I asked

01:20:45

God to give me a second chance and to let me live. And so I knew that God had a reason for me to be alive, and there was a purpose for me.

01:20:53

It was just a matter of kind of trying to figure out what that was and what I could actually do. And so one of my life mottos became just to do what

01:21:01

I can with what I have, where I am at. But I began working with kids, and I started to, you know, go out and speak and tell my story and begin to write down things.

01:21:16

And at the time, you know, writing down was not, you know, I couldn't obviously pick up a pen, and writing those down,

01:21:23

I had to roll up to my computer and grab a mouse stick that was mounted on the top of the table, pick that up with my mouth, and just start typing on a keyboard.

01:21:37

But during all of this, as I was doing this and trying to figure out life, I was sitting, you know, in the backyard of my mom's house, and my little three -year -old brother at the time, the youngest one of the bunch, was playing in the sandbox, and I was watching him.

01:21:52

And it was 75, 80 degrees. I was just enjoying a beautiful day, and a bird flew by and dropped a big old pile of you -know -what right on my right shoulder.

01:22:03

So I hollered out to my little brother because, you know, that was a circumstance that I didn't want to be in.

01:22:10

And so I hollered out to him. I said, hey, will you come here? I need your help because three -year -olds, you know, they're pretty helpful a lot of times, or at least they want to feel like they're helpful, even if they aren't really all that helpful yet.

01:22:24

But he loved, you know, to take my shoes off at night when they put me in bed. He liked to try to untie them and that type of thing.

01:22:31

So I hollered out at him. I said, hey, James, I need your help. And so he stood up and brushed a little sand off and waddled over there to where I was.

01:22:40

He said, what do you need? I said, well, you see that stuff there on my shoulder? I said, I need you to wipe it off.

01:22:47

I didn't want to tell him what it was, you know, because I didn't know how he'd respond.

01:22:54

But he wrinkled up, you know, he reached up there, and he was just about getting ready to wipe it off, and he froze.

01:23:00

And he said, what is that? And I told him, you know, well, I just walked me in the sandbox. Bird poop,

01:23:06

I just fell out of the sky. There's a big pile, you know, right there on my shoulder. It's got to be bird poop.

01:23:12

Well, he jerked his hand back, and he wrinkled up his nose, and he said, ew, I'm not touching that stuff.

01:23:19

So I said, well, okay, we'll go in the house and get Mom, you know, because Mom will take care of stuff for you like that when your little brother won't.

01:23:29

But I'll never forget what he said before he went into the house. He looked at me in that real stern little 3 -year -old voice.

01:23:39

He said, I'll go get Mom. But if she don't want to wipe it off of there, then you're just going to have to learn to live with it.

01:23:48

I'll never forget that because, you know, in my mind, it was like God was putting a huge exclamation mark at the end of a big lesson he's just been trying to teach me, and that was that there are sometimes things in life that we have to learn to accept them, and when we can't change them, you know, we've got to learn to live with them.

01:24:12

Man, Mom came out, you know, and she took care of the problem, but I wrote my book because I just wanted to challenge people out there who are going through unwanted circumstances that maybe they couldn't change even though they want to, you know, that they learn just to live with those unwanted circumstances in such a way where, you know, they'd first be able to accept them and then be able to live life in such a way that, you know, they might be able to make a difference in the lives of other people and live for God.

01:24:43

And so, you know, that little three -year -old, you know, who had obviously probably heard from Mom, you know, sometime when he didn't want to eat his carrots, that he was going to have to learn to live with it or deal with it or, you know, very young, we learned that there are some things in life we just can't change.

01:25:03

But, you know, first it meant accept, and then it meant, you know, go on and try to do the best you can with what you have.

01:25:11

You know, even though you don't have everything that you want, you might wish that life was different, you know, still you do have what you have.

01:25:20

And God, you know, I feel like God doesn't expect us to do more than we can. He only expects us to use the abilities and talents that we have.

01:25:30

And so many times we sit around thinking about all the things we wish we could do or the things that we wish that we had and, you know, try to bargain with God.

01:25:38

And I don't know if you do that or not, but sometimes I'm like, God, man, if you'd just do this for me, think about all

01:25:44

I could do for you. And so, you know, God just really taught me that we just got to do what we can with what we have right where we are and try not to worry about all the rest.

01:25:57

So that's kind of my challenge, you know, to everybody. And the reason why I wrote the book is because God has taught me these things and I wanted to share them with other people who might be going through unwanted circumstances that they're having a tough time accepting and going on with because of the fact that, you know, that they can't change it.

01:26:17

So it's a tough thing. And, you know, I was able to take that harshness from a little three -year -old, learning to live with it, you know, like you said.

01:26:27

But anyway, I just wanted to share that story, and that's actually how

01:26:32

I got the title of the book. And it's a great story. We have an anonymous listener who says,

01:26:40

Some of my closest friends are Pentecostal and charismatic, both in the ministry and in the pulpit.

01:26:49

I'm sorry, in the pew. And I was wondering how

01:26:55

I can approach them about their mistaken beliefs that if a person has strong enough faith they will be healed.

01:27:03

I also was wondering if you, just like a guest that Chris Arnzen has had,

01:27:09

Justin Peters, who initially, after realizing that he would be paralyzed for life, began attending faith healers before he came to realize that this was a false and dangerous practice.

01:27:27

Oh, man, that's a tough subject, because it does cause some division.

01:27:34

But, you know, I feel like I kind of went through a little bit of that right after becoming paralyzed.

01:27:41

I had some Pentecostal friends. They'd come, they'd pray for me, and tell me to do this or that.

01:27:53

And, man, here's,

01:27:59

I guess, the point that I eventually came to. If you take out all the plots, it's all about God's timing.

01:28:06

Do I still believe that God could heal? Well, sure. I believe God can do miracles in our lives.

01:28:15

But I believe it's about His timing. And if it doesn't happen here on this earth, then it will happen.

01:28:24

Praise God. I've come to realize that this life is temporary, and that God is more concerned with my internal comfort than my temporary comfort.

01:28:35

And, you know, I look at the miracles. I went through the New Testament, looked at every miracle, and tried to figure out, you know, why did

01:28:43

Jesus do this miracle? Why did He do that one? And I looked at the people involved and thought, wow, they showed faith.

01:28:50

And so, you know, if I show that same kind of faith, then maybe I'll get His attention, and I can get into a miracle in my life.

01:29:01

But, you know, I look at scriptures like in Mark 2, where the paralyzed man was lowered down through the roof.

01:29:08

You think about that, the first thing I've got to say is, I don't know if you've ever tried to lower a paralyzed guy down through a roof.

01:29:15

If my friends came to me and said, hey, you know, we want to take you over to this house, and we're going to lower you down through the roof, first off I'd be, you know what?

01:29:25

Doesn't Isaiah say something about waiting on the Lord? Let's just wait, you know? Wait right outside the door.

01:29:32

But then, you know, what did Jesus do to the man? He did healing, but first He said, son, your sins are forgiven.

01:29:41

And I think there's a couple things there that we can learn, and that is the most important thing is that Jesus is in the business of forgiving our sins and healing us on the inside.

01:29:53

And, you know, whether a miracle happens on the outside or not, you know, it's always going to be temporary.

01:30:00

That guy that was healed there that day, eventually his body wore out again. So, you know,

01:30:07

I don't know that I have necessarily an answer to even some of my own Pentecostal friends, but I have been told before that I didn't have enough faith, and that if I did have enough faith that, you know, that I'd be healed.

01:30:23

And I've been told that maybe there was something wrong with me, maybe something in my life that I needed to get rid of.

01:30:30

You have been told that. So that I could be healed. But, you know, you think about it, how do we receive from God?

01:30:37

We receive our salvation by grace, right? Through faith. And a miracle, you know, we can't do anything to deserve a miracle.

01:30:48

Right. God does what he does out of grace. Right. And so, you know, it's all about his timing.

01:30:58

It's about his grace and his will. And whatever that is, it's going to be okay. Amen. Amen.

01:31:04

And there's a difference between believing that a sovereign God can do anything he wants to do and can and does perform miracles and believing that there are men who are miracle workers.

01:31:17

Those are two different things. And obviously, it is an act of cruelty and even a heresy to tell someone that if their faith was strong enough, they will definitely be healed.

01:31:31

There's nothing in the scriptures that teach that. And I believe that those types of evangelist preachers and self -proclaimed healers are very dangerous to the body of Christ and to the souls of men.

01:31:50

So, by the way, I don't know if you're familiar with Justin Peters. I strongly urge you to go to justinpeters .org.

01:31:57

He is a fine brother in Christ that I've interviewed on this program many times. And also is wheelchair -bound for the rest of his life and has been a profound encouragement and inspiration to many people, whether they are healthy or disabled.

01:32:15

So I just recommend that to you and everybody listening. Thank you. And another listener, we have

01:32:24

BB in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, who wants to know, Chris Arnzen mentioned

01:32:30

Johnny Erickson Tata in the beginning of the program. I was wondering if you knew Johnny, if you have received comfort and encouragement from her teachings, and if you have ever worked with her on any project for evangelism.

01:32:46

You know, I've never had the opportunity to meet her. I do know that I've read a couple of her books, and they have been inspiring, and just seeing what she's done over the years has been an inspiration to me, as well as a few other people that I know that have been paralyzed.

01:33:08

But I have to tell this story to you, because it was a typical dad thing to do after I became paralyzed.

01:33:19

He asked me, he's like, what in the world were you thinking when you dove off that rock? And obviously I wasn't thinking about the consequences, but we've all had parents who, when we were teenagers, we'd do something kind of dumb,

01:33:33

I guess, and our parents are like, what were you thinking? And that's kind of what my dad was that day, but he followed that up with, don't you remember watching that movie about Johnny Erickson?

01:33:45

And so I was like, yeah, I remember that, but I just wasn't, there was nothing to be thinking about then.

01:33:55

So yeah, I watched the movie and knew about her before, and definitely was inspired by her after I became paralyzed as well.

01:34:09

Amen. Let's see here. We have Arnie in Perry County, Pennsylvania, who wants to know, do you find your day -to -day life is dominated by sadness and regret over your circumstances, or joy and thanksgiving?

01:34:32

Dominated by? I feel like God has done an amazing miracle in my life, like I started out this story, talking about how his

01:34:44

Spirit has worked an incredible miracle in my life and given me strength and grace and comfort that I just can't explain.

01:34:55

If you had told me before I became paralyzed that I'd be here today and be able to be happy and wake up every day and want to get out of bed and want to do things and want to make the most out of my life,

01:35:09

I'd have told you that you were crazy because I just couldn't see it. But I do believe that my life, even though it's not free from those struggles, and there are days when

01:35:19

I am depressed and discouraged, I feel like for the most part my life is good and God has given me a lot to be hopeful for and to be thankful for.

01:35:35

I think that's one of the keys, is just learning to focus on the things that God has given us, the things that we have each and every day instead of dwelling so much on the things that we don't have.

01:35:47

I know that that makes a huge difference in my life when I learn to focus on what

01:35:52

I do have versus what I don't have. Great. By the way, all the folks who have sent in questions, you too are going to receive a free copy of Learning to Live With It by Kevin Olson, thanks to his generosity.

01:36:09

So make sure that we get your complete mailing address, including the anonymous listener.

01:36:15

Make sure we have your full name as well. We won't divulge that over the air, of course. And Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service, cvbbs .com,

01:36:23

will ship these books out to you, no charge to you or to us.

01:36:30

Joseph in South Central Pennsylvania wants to know, I believe it will be highly encouraging to our listeners who are disabled, who are paraplegic or quadriplegic especially, if you let them know the great news about the amazing developments in technology and even that which enables you to create websites and other things in spite of your disability.

01:37:02

Well, it's changed a lot over the last 30 years.

01:37:08

I think the computer that I first started working on in the rehab hospital in Denver, probably a $20 ,000 computer.

01:37:22

It just had a little tube that you blew or sucked in, one or the other to type a letter, one letter at a time.

01:37:30

And then they had another one with a little bit of voice capability. But now you can get an

01:37:38

Apple computer, iPhone, tablet, with voice capabilities built right into them without buying any additional software.

01:37:50

And a lot of times that is what I use, you know, to communicate emails back and forth with potential clients.

01:37:58

And I do, you know, it's got to be quiet in the environment that I'm in.

01:38:06

So I pull up to my computer. I have two things set up here. I have a microphone that I can talk into to actually pretty much do anything on the screen that you would do if you had a, you know, a touchpad or a keyboard and a mouse.

01:38:24

And then I also have a mouse stick, which is basically just an 18 to 20 -inch stick with a mouse piece on one end and a tip on the other that I can use during the times when

01:38:39

I actually do have to physically push a button, move the mouse, or click on something.

01:38:45

But I've found that the combination of those two things has been a big help for me.

01:38:52

If you're not a Mac user, Windows computers have a thing called

01:38:58

Dragon Dictate that you can install on your computer. And it is a voice -activated software that works really well, too.

01:39:08

I do recommend either one of those options that you do some training, watch some

01:39:14

YouTube videos about, you know, how to work them because there are so many keywords and things that you just have to know how to do in certain orders, things you have to say.

01:39:29

And if you don't do that, it can become pretty frustrating. But those are the two main technologies that I like to use.

01:39:39

And as I was telling you before the show, the technology is so remarkable that a brother in Christ whose name should be very familiar to most performed

01:39:51

Baptist listening, Johnny Farisi, who is now in heaven for eternity, he had a disability that rendered him completely immobile with the exception of his ability to speak with great difficulty and to move his eyes.

01:40:11

And he had some kind of a computer system where he was able to manipulate the computer through his eye movements, and he actually built websites as well for a living.

01:40:24

And he created the largest database church directory of Reformed Baptist churches in the world through this technology.

01:40:35

So that also should be an encouragement to our listeners.

01:40:42

When it comes to evangelism and sharing your testimony,

01:40:51

I know that you are available to be a speaker at churches, at schools, at parachurch organizations.

01:40:59

Can you tell us not only how our listeners can go about scheduling you for one of those events, but also if you have any anecdotal experiences you can share about disabled people who have been highly blessed by what you have had to say?

01:41:20

Well, to your first question, if you want to get a hold of me,

01:41:27

I have one website set up right now that is learningtolivewithit .com,

01:41:34

that people can go there and order a copy of the book if they want to, or my email is down at the bottom of the homepage where you can contact me directly through that email address.

01:41:50

If you don't want to go there, it's kevinaolson at yahoo .com. Just be willing to talk to you or respond in any way that you might want or need to via email, or you can go to that website, which is learningtolivewithit .com.

01:42:14

I've had the opportunity to go around and speak at a lot of churches, schools, and I suppose probably the most rewarding for me is always,

01:42:26

I don't know, I guess it's changed over the course of my life. When I was younger, in my 20s, doing this,

01:42:34

I really got to feel like I was influential in a lot of young kids' lives and their decisions and their faith and that type of thing.

01:42:47

But as I've gotten older, I enjoy kind of getting, I guess, to talk to people who are maybe not even disabled.

01:42:56

Maybe they're just retired and they're struggling with, you know, what am I going to do now? My life for 40 years has all been wrapped up in my job and that's been my purpose, but now

01:43:07

I'm retired and struggling with that. So all throughout,

01:43:14

I guess, the course of my life, I've felt like I've been able to relate to people in all walks of life and all situations and circumstances because I feel like, you know, we all face unwanted circumstances no matter whether we're disabled or not.

01:43:31

And so I'd say that, you know, that has given me,

01:43:38

I guess, the ability to kind of open the door to talk to a wide variety of people and just feel like, in many cases, just to be an encouragement to a lot of them just to keep going and not to give up on God and just knowing that He loves them.

01:44:02

I feel like that's the big thing right now. My wife and I work with an FCA group at our local high school and middle school.

01:44:10

You know, she's a high school and middle school teacher and a volleyball coach, and we have the opportunity about once a month to just share the gospel message with a group of kids, and many of them, you know, it's sad that in our country, here in Kansas, in the

01:44:25

Bible Belt, most of our kids don't go to church on a regular basis. And so we're able to share the gospel with kids in that setting that might not ever get to hear it.

01:44:38

So, you know, it's just good to be able to go to so many different places and relate to so many different types of people and share my story and the things that God has done in me and through me.

01:44:52

And He wants to do it for everybody, not just me. Praise God.

01:44:57

And we do have another anonymous listener who says, I have a strong disagreement with a friend of mine who allows his children to be involved in very dangerous and reckless recreational activity, and I was wondering what your thoughts were on that.

01:45:17

I know that there's an old saying, boys will be boys. We don't want to feminize our sons, but at the same time, there is a limit to what kind of recreational activity is wise.

01:45:31

I was wondering what your thoughts were on that. Well, I mean, that's going to be a tough call because, you know, boys don't learn to think about the consequences of things, and typically they go out and do things without thinking of the consequences, just like I did.

01:45:54

So when I go and speak to a group of kids, I basically tell them this. I say, you know, there's a difference between wisdom and knowledge.

01:46:02

Knowledge is knowing something, and wisdom is being able to apply it. And just being able to teach kids, you know, that there are consequences to your choices and teach them to learn to think about what they are doing.

01:46:18

So many times they do things to, you know, just show off for other friends or whatever and never think about what might happen.

01:46:27

So that's kind of my guideline is that I try to encourage kids and parents to teach those kids to learn to think about the consequences of their choices.

01:46:38

I need to get involved in, you know, specifics and saying, well, this isn't safe and this is.

01:46:48

But learning to think about consequences is a big thing to me. Yeah, and I'm assuming that in regard to recreational activities that are considered very normal and healthy, like diving into water and swimming,

01:47:08

I'm assuming that you would very strongly warn our listeners, not only for themselves, but perhaps parents who want to warn their children that they have to be very familiar with the body of water that they intend to swim in and dive in before taking a leap into that water.

01:47:34

You know, if you're going to be diving off a cliff or something like a lot of kids do, depending upon where they live, you're going to want to make sure that other people are doing that on a regular basis and not having difficulty, that there are no rocks with shallow water in that area.

01:47:54

Am I making sense here? I mean, isn't this something that we have to be very diligent about when warning people about something that is a very common activity that could be deadly?

01:48:07

Oh, yeah. I mean, it's something, you know, that we all do. And I had done at that particular dock several times.

01:48:17

But you just assume nothing's going to happen to you, and then it does.

01:48:22

So, you know, I tell people, don't just sit on the couch and do nothing with your life because you're afraid that you might get hurt.

01:48:31

But definitely be cautious. Realize that God has given you a body, and you're supposed to take care of it.

01:48:39

So I guess within the people that I've talked to, they're in that club of quadriplegics or paraplegics who, in a diving accident, there's kind of a thing where, you know, when you're talking to kids and trying to teach them.

01:48:55

So definitely would be my advice there. Well, we have to go to our final break.

01:49:00

It will be much more brief than the other breaks. If you have a question, send it in immediately because we're rapidly running out of time.

01:49:06

chrisarnson at gmail .com, chrisarnson at gmail .com. We'll be right back with Kevin Olson right after these messages.

01:49:28

James White of Alpha Omega Ministries here. Excited to announce that my longtime friend Chris Arnson of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio and I are heading to Washington, D .C.,

01:49:37

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01:55:17

Welcome back. This is Chris Arnzen. We have Robert in White Plains, New York, who wants to know,

01:55:24

Chris Arnzen, the host today, has a number of times used the word disabled.

01:55:30

Is that something that is offensive to you, and what kind of language should we use when we are having a conversation with somebody who may be in the same condition that you find yourselves in by God's providence?

01:55:46

I'm not a person who gets easily offended at words.

01:55:53

Whether somebody wants to refer to me as being disabled or paralyzed or any of that, personally, it's not something that bothers me.

01:56:05

I've come to terms with that, and that's okay. And so, you know,

01:56:13

I can't speak for everybody else out there, but personally, no, it doesn't make a difference to me at all.

01:56:20

So you don't demand upon the term physically challenged or anything like that, that seems to, at least it was in vogue for a period, but I still see signs in different parking lots that say handicapped parking, so it still seems to be a part of our vernacular.

01:56:38

Yeah, my own personal opinion is we kind of live in a society where everybody's too worried about a lot of things that really don't matter a whole lot.

01:56:50

So in my own opinion, that is a small thing.

01:56:57

Well, we have, and by the way, Robert, get us your mailing address, because you've also won a free copy of Learning to Live With It by Kevin Olson.

01:57:07

And CVBBS .com will be shipping that out to you when we get your mailing address. Please conclude our program with about 90 seconds worth of what you most want etched in the hearts and minds of our listeners today,

01:57:20

Kevin. Well, I was praying while we were on break there that God would give me something to share, and I guess what

01:57:27

I'd like to share is Romans 8, 18 says, Our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

01:57:39

And when I think about that scripture, you know, I often, over the course of my life,

01:57:44

I've wondered, you know, all the questions that I don't have answers to in this life, you know, when

01:57:50

I get to heaven, man, I'm going to ask God, I'm going to ask Him why this and why that. And so, you know, the older I get, the longer

01:57:58

I live, the more I realize that all this is temporary and that God has a great and wonderful plan for us.

01:58:05

And the things that He has in store for us when this life is over is not even something that we can imagine.

01:58:12

And Romans 8, 18 says that our present sufferings are not even worth comparing what

01:58:19

God has planned for us later and what He'll reveal into us. And so, you know, when we get to heaven,

01:58:24

I don't even know that I'll even care to ask God why, you know, He allowed me to go through the things that I've gone through, because I might be so busy enjoying what

01:58:34

He's got planned for me out there that I won't even care. So I just want to encourage everybody out there that's going through some type of a tough time and one of the circumstances maybe that you can't change, you're trying to live with them, and maybe you're struggling, just remember, you know, that everything we face here is temporary.

01:58:54

And what God has in store for us, you know, is something that nobody can steal from us.

01:59:01

Amen. Well, remember, folks, Kevin has a couple of websites, kevinolson .net.

01:59:07

He spells that the Swedish way, by the way, and I forgive him for that being half Norwegian. It's Kevin Olson O -N at the end.

01:59:15

And also, learningtolivewithit .com, learningtolivewithit .com.

01:59:21

You can also purchase his book at cvbbs .com, Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service, cvbbs .com.

01:59:29

I want to thank you so much, Kevin, for being an extraordinary guest. I look forward to you having another interview on this program and many more in the future,

01:59:38

God willing. I want to thank everybody who listened, especially those who took the time to write. I hope you all have a very safe, happy, and healthy and Christ -honoring

01:59:47

Memorial Day weekend and Lord's Day. And I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater