Focus on the Family

John Fuller: The following program is sponsored by Focus on the Family and is made possible by the heartfelt support of listeners like you.

This is John Fuller and please remember to let us know how you're listening to these programs on a podcast, app, or website. Today on Focus on the Family with Jim Daly, our guest is David Ring, and he shares his unique perspective about living with cerebral palsy.

David Ring: What's wrong with cerebral palsy? They tell me it's a handicap. It's a disability. Baloney! I would rather be like I am and know the man that don't know the power of God.

John Fuller: Well, you're going to be hearing more of that passion and I hope you're inspired to live your life more fully regardless of your circumstances through what David is sharing. Thanks for joining us. I'm John Fuller.

Jim Daly: John, we're returning to one of the most popular broadcasts of all time here at Focus on the Family. Every time I hear this message, I'm inspired once again to make the most of what God has given me and also to love and accept those around me.

David is a great example of the fact that every life is precious because we're all made in the image of God. I think you'll be amazed when you hear how the Lord has worked in David's life.

John Fuller: It's really a powerful message and what should be apparent is that David's speech has been deeply affected by cerebral palsy. So he's a bit difficult to understand at first, but lean in and it'll take just a short while for you to really get pulled into his message. Here now is David Ring, speaking at Moody Bible Institute's Founders Week a number of years ago on Focus on the Family with Jim Daly.

David Ring: Let me ask you something. Do you ever get down in the dumps? Do you? Why? Everybody does it. It feels good doing it. Come to my house and let's all get down in the dumps together.

But why do we get down in the dumps? Because we have our eyes on our circumstance. We have our eyes on our circumstance. Every time you get your eyes on your circumstance, you are going to get down in the dumps.

But I come to you today to share with you that God can make lemonade out of anybody's lemon. Amen? But the problem is, we don't want to give God the lemon. Now, how can God make lemonade out of our lemon if we don't give God the lemon?

You know why we don't give God the lemon? Because if we give God the lemon, we won't have anything to talk about. No wonder people don't come to church. Because every time they come to church, they see a bunch of people sharing lemons with each other.

Do you want to see my lemon? Oh, I can beat that. My lemon's bigger than your lemon. Do you know I'm so afraid to ask people how they're doing? Number one, I'm afraid they're going to tell me. Number two, I don't want to know.

How are you doing? Oh, my back's killing me. How are you doing? Oh, I don't think I'm going to make it today. That's pitiful. Every little pain in your body, you go, "Woe is me, woe is my feet, woe is my legs, woe is my back, woe is my head."

Oh, get over it! Amen? I believe with all my heart that God's people should never get down in the dumps. You say, "Preacher, I don't believe that." I know you don't believe it. You know why you don't believe it?

Because you've been brainwashed all your life. You've been told everybody does it. It's okay to just share your feeling. It's okay to just get down in the dumps and be yourself. That sounds good, folks, but it's not in the Word of God.

And I believe with all my heart that God's people should never get down in the dumps. You say, "Preacher, you don't know what I'm going through." No, I don't. You don't know the storm I'm in. No, I don't. You don't know the valley I'm in. No, I don't.

I don't understand how a husband and a wife can live together 40 or 50 years and wake up one morning and say, "We don't love each other." I don't understand that. I don't understand how a man can leave town with another man's wife in the church. I don't understand that.

I don't understand how a young couple, a husband and a wife, can pray for a baby and God don't see fit to open the womb. I don't understand that storm. But I know one thing the Bible says: God works together all things for the good of them that love God.

If you love God, say amen. If you love God, God is on your side. God is not against you. We've got the mentality of God, God don't love me, God is against us. But I'm here to tell you, not only to tell you but to show you from my own life, that God is for us.

God loves us. I have not always felt that way, though. I was born to lose, born dead for 18 minutes. The oxygen didn't get to my brain. That's why I walk with a limp. That's why I talk like I do because of cerebral palsy at birth. Strike number one.

When I was 11 years old, a little boy, my daddy got sick. November 1964, my daddy died with cancer of the liver. Strike number two. Well, I'm the baby of the family. I'm the baby of eight. And when I came along, they spoiled me rotten and I loved every minute of it.

My mama spoiled me rotten. My mama gave me everything I wanted and sometimes she even gave me things I didn't want. You know what I mean? But I loved my mama. I'm not only the baby of the family, but I'm a number-one mama's baby boy.

You can tell by looking at me I'm a mama's boy because I've got that mama's baby face. And if you make fun of me, I'm going to punch your lights out. Every morning, my mama and I get up before I'm on my way to school, we tell each other we love each other.

Nothing wrong with loving your mama, amen? I think everybody needs a mama's love. Everybody needs a mama's touch. There was something very special about my mama and I'm not ashamed to tell you. I will be a number-one mama's baby boy until the day I die. Why? Because I love my mama. Amen.

One day in my life, though, my mom got sick. The woman I love, the woman I adore, the woman I watched every morning. And God bless it, she went into the hospital the day before Mother's Day, 1968, to have an operation on her neck.

A simple operation, no big deal. But just about two months later, the doctor came to my family and said, "Your mama will never come home again. She has cancer. She has six months at the very most to live."

I thought, "Oh, no. Not my mama. My mama can't die. My mama shields me. My mama protects me. My mama's the only one that loves me just the way I am. My mama can't die. Can she?"

John Fuller: You're listening to David Ring on today's episode of Focus on the Family with Jim Daly and what a story. You can hear more of David's testimony in his book, The Boy Born Dead. We'd be happy to send that to you for a donation of any amount to the ministry today.

When you're online with us, be sure to sign up to receive a free set of audio downloads. It's called Enduring the Challenges of Life. It's a collection of five hours of encouragement for tough times from guests like Joni Eareckson Tada, Sheila Walsh, Dr. Tim Keller, and more, plus the entire message from David Ring.

Sign up for that audio collection and get David's book at focusonthefamily.com/broadcast or call 800, the letter A, and the word FAMILY. Let's return now to more from David Ring.

David Ring: I don't know the only thing I know what to do. I got down on my knees every day. Every night, I'd say, "God, please don't take my mama. God, please don't take my mama. God, please don't take my mama. God, my mama's the only thing I have. God, don't take my mama, please."

But in October 1968, God took my mama, the only one that loved me just the way I am. And I saw my precious mom go from 185 pounds to 57 pounds. Strike number three. I didn't want to live. I wanted to die.

If I couldn't live with my mama, I did not want to live at all. Everywhere I went, somebody would point their finger and say, "Look, that boy walks funny. Look, that boy talks funny. Look, that boy can't do anything." Look, look, look.

I couldn't go home to my mama and I couldn't say, "Mama, somebody made fun of me today." She couldn't put her arm around me and make it all better. People looked at me. I would lay in bed every day, every night with tears rolling down my face, begging to die.

Why? Because I was lonely. Why? Because I was longing to be in my mama's arms one more time. I thought if I only could climb up in my mama's lap one more time, if I only could feel my mama's loving arms one more time, my mama would make it better. But those days never came.

You remember the song we sang when we were a little boy or little girl? "Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream." Only one problem with that. Everybody's got to wake up one day.

And I woke up. And when I woke up, I felt like nobody loved me. I thought my family gave up on me. Everybody gave up on me but one sister. She encouraged me. She wanted me to go to school. I didn't want to go to school. I hated school.

It's no fun to walk down the hallway and let somebody laugh at the way I walk and let somebody laugh at the way I talk. It's no fun to walk down to a bus stop every morning. And every time I open my mouth, trying to be friendly, all I wanted was somebody to be my friend.

All I wanted was somebody to love me just the way I am. All I wanted was somebody to put their arm around me and say it's going to be okay. But every time I opened my mouth, somebody would point their finger in my face and call me retarded and every other name they go by. It hurt, folks.

I told my sister, "Give up on me. I'm a hopeless, I'm a worthless." I thought nobody loved me. I thought God was against me. "Just give up on me." She said, "No, I'm not going to give up on you. I don't know what I'm going to do with you yet, but I'm sure not going to give up on you."

Thank God for a stubborn sister, amen? She wanted me to go to church. I didn't want to go to church, either. I've been brought up in the church. My daddy's a preacher. I'm the preacher's kid. I know the lingo. I even know John 3:16.

But John 3:16 don't make any sense. It's one thing to stand behind the pulpit and on Saturday morning and say, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son." Oh, that sounds so good and wonderful, story. But it's another thing to wake up every morning with tears rolling down my face and say, "God, do you love me?"

"God, if you love me, why did you take away my daddy? God, if you love me, why did you take away my mama? God, if you love me, why did you give me a crippled body? God, if you love me, why are you breaking my heart every time I turn around? God, if you love me, where are you when I need you the most?"

People look at me. I don't know you. But I know one thing for sure, that most of you, if not all of you, have asked God the same question, haven't you? I guarantee you, people, if I were to open up your life today, I would find something way down deep crying out, "God, if you love me, why, why, why?"

We've got the mentality of God, God is against us. I've been there, folks. And nobody understands your storm quite like you do. But one night I went to church just to get my sister off my back.

And that night I went in, I sat down, and the preacher got up to preach and I said, "Man, I wish you would shut up." You've been there, too, huh? Something happened in my life that changed my life forever. The Lord Jesus spoke up.

And the Lord came to me and a knock at my heart. And he said, "David, I'm standing at your heart knocking. If you only listen to me and open the door, I will come in and I will have fellowship with you forever and forever."

And that night, I got up off my seat, came down to an old-fashioned altar, got down on my knees. And I said, "Lord Jesus, here I am. If you're really up there, if you really love me, come into my life. I'm a lonely crippled boy. I'm a nobody, but tonight, I want to be a somebody."

And hallelujah, people! April 17th, 1970, at 8:45 p.m., I became a somebody because Jesus came into my life. For the first time in my life, I felt like God loves me just the way I am. God took away my old thing and gave me new thing.

God took away my loneliness, gave me happiness. I'm not lonely anymore. I'm happy. You know why? Because I've been to the doctor. Doctor Jesus! Pretty good doctor to go to, amen? Number one, you don't have to wait in a lobby for two hours.

God took away my sorrow and gave me joy unspeakable and full of glory. Look at me, people, look at me. I still walk with a limp. I still talk funny. But oh, the joy that floods my soul because Jesus touched me and made me whole.

I'm not the same anymore. I've been changed by the power of God. I've been touched by the old-time religion. And it happened to me over 25 years ago. And you know what? I'm not over it yet. I don't want to die. I want to live.

Why? Because I've got something worth living for. People look at me. It's not what we are on the outside. It's everything we are on the inside.

John Fuller: Well, we hate to break in here, but that's where we're going to have to end this episode of Focus on the Family with Jim Daly. What a terrific presentation from David Ring as he spoke at Moody Bible Institute's Founders Week a number of years ago.

And next time, we're going to hear how God continued to work in David's life and how he met his wife and started a family.

Jim Daly: John, isn't it amazing that the Lord helped David develop into such a powerful speaker in spite of his speech impediment and physical challenges? What a great example of God's ability to work through any of us no matter what our circumstances are.

And you know, this program does highlight our core mission here at Focus on the Family, and that is to introduce people to Jesus Christ. I hope you heard that clearly today in David's presentation. And if you've never accepted Christ into your life, I want to pray for you right now because you know what? It'll change the rest of your life for the better. Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, I want to pray on behalf of those who are bending their knee, maybe not physically but mentally toward you right now. And we want to pray together, Lord, that we recognize ourselves as sinners. We fall short of your perfection and yet, Lord, even in that, you love us and you care for us like a father loves his children.

And Lord, we come to your throne asking for forgiveness and for you to come into our lives as broken people, Lord, to make us whole. We acknowledge that you, Jesus, are the Son of God, and we thank you for your sacrificial death on the cross to pay for our sins and to give us eternal life.

Come into our lives right now and change us into the people you want us to be. And we thank you in Christ's name. Amen.

John Fuller: Well, amen. And if you prayed along with Jim right there, stop by our website and look for a free online article we have called "Coming Home". It'll give you some next steps for your spiritual journey ahead. And of course, look for a local church, plug in, find community. These are all things to help you grow in your faith.

Jim Daly: And let us know that you prayed that prayer. And let me say well done, welcome to the family of God.

John Fuller: Yeah, we would love to hear your story. Our number is 800, the letter A, and the word FAMILY. And this reminder, we have David Ring's incredible autobiography, The Boy Born Dead. Call us if you'd like to get a copy. You'll also find details about how you can get that at focusonthefamily.com/broadcast.

And when you're online, be sure to look for that free collection of audio downloads called Enduring the Challenges of Life, which includes this riveting message from David Ring. Next time, you'll hear how God has used David to proclaim the gospel around the world.

David Ring: In my mama's womb, God ordained me. The Bible says I was wonderfully and fearfully made by God.

John Fuller: Thanks for listening today to Focus on the Family with Jim Daly. I'm John Fuller inviting you back as we once again help you and your family thrive in Christ.

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