Mom had remarried and this was the beginning of the physical abuse by my stepfather. He would get drunk and his favorite sport was beating my brother and I and then beating my mother when she would try to help. This went on until I was 11, whereas she finally left him, she always stood by us kids. My mom had always had a hard time of it, bless her heart, she did her best, raising my brother and I and my two sisters. But out of this hard time she became an alcoholic. I watched her drink herself to death in her loneliness and misery.
About the age of thirteen I found out about drugs. I didn’t really care for alcohol much because of what I had witnessed. My dad developing heart desease, my stepfather beating us drunk and then my mother dying of sirosis of the liver. But drugs now, that was different, I thought. It started innocently, I thought. At first with pot, but then graduated to anything and everything. I grew up in the 70s by the way, so you can imagine for yourself. The 70s were a grab bag of every chemical known to man. As I lived in South Louisiana, in what is called the "chemical corridor", there never was a shortage.
At the age of 17, I met my wife Judy. Believe it or not we had met two or three times before in the previous years and even had a date once but hardly knew each other. We were married Dec. 23, 1973, after a lengthy engagement of two months. Needless to say this was my mate for life, she feels the same. My first child a girl, was born a year after that and we started on our dream to raise a large family.
We were pretty much latter day pioneers. I always said I was born 200 years too late. We always had a dream of living in the Rocky Mountains. So after my second child was born, this one a boy, we moved up to Wyoming, where I went to work as a machinist in a oilfield machine shop. This wasn’t quite what I envisioned, but we were in the mountains. I had always worked offshore on drilling and workover rigs and heavy labor from the age of 15, so I thought this job was great. In reality, this was just as laborious as anything you can think of but the pay was better, and I advanced to foreman in a year. The times were good.
Well, this started all my back trouble, by this time I was 25 and experiencing frequent back aches. Trips to the doctor only sealed my fate as all they had to offer was narcotic painkillers. After two more children and many years later, and a series of 8 major back surgeries, I was completely and hopelessly addicted to painkillers. This was my next season of tribulation.
Oh, I almost forgot the most important part, Judy and I were saved one morning in 1977, but as we all know, the joy of salvation and the knowing of the Lord doesn’t last too long without diligence to follow up, so we fell back, sliding into the hopelessness of sin. Always remembering we were saved and had a new relationship with God. Never forgetting that what we experienced was truly real. We knew we were born again, but satan came and stole the word as Mk.4: 15 says. The joy of our salvation just seemed to fade like so much of the other good things that we always came upon.
Upon moving back to South Louisiana in 1983 we started on our search for Jesus. As I said, we met Him once, and knew now that was all we wanted. If it wasn’t for bad times, I don’t know if anyone would answer the Call. Praise God for bad times, Huh? In all of my family's great tribulations due to my back problems, I figured all I had to do was waltz right back up into the Throne Room, get healed, and get on with the blessings. This was what I was being taught. But this was not to be what God wanted for me. This season of trial and tribulation was to last 10 more years, all in His plan to purify and refine.
Because of the great quantities of narcotics I was taking, I had seizure episodes. Not minor ones, but full blown seizures. There were times the doctors would prescribe up to 400 pills a week, something I couldn’t quite grasp, but I was sure willing to take them as long as they were dishing them out. Some of these were morphine and high caliber painkillers. Some make morphine seem like a Tylenol. Well needless to say, I died twice with respiratory arrest after accidental overdoses. Both times to be found by my oldest son and rushed to the hospital, only to wake up and wonder what the _____ was going on. All of the back surgeries were unbelievably nightmarish. This was in the early 80's when the doctors were experimenting on men and women such as myself in the operating room trying to relieve our pain with screws and plates and metal fixtures in our spines. They've since stopped these procedures as they only made us worse. The pain from these procedures kept doubling after each one. This only sealed my fate further with the narcotics.
Well these episodes also were His divine plan, I wouldn’t backstep or change things one bit, for I finally started to come to my senses around 1993. After a frantic search through all the factions of the organization called religion left me dry, I decided to sit down and never get up until I learned everything I could learn about Jesus. This is still going on today. I still have pain daily, but after 15 years, I don't take painkillers like I used to. In fact if I need them, I take non-narcotic painkillers. The desire and craving for the narcotics has just faded away, and I like this guy that I never had a chance to meet. I don't know if this thorn will ever be removed, but as Paul said in 2 Cor. 12: 9 I agree, all I need is His grace, Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
The past 7 years have been my training in understanding hearing His Word. It has just been He and I at my desk, on my PC most of the time from 4: 30 in the morning till 1:00 the next. I knew this One on one training was to be so when I found the witnesses in Heb. 8: 10 & 11 that say ~ For this is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people: (11) And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest. This drove me on even harder and continues to keep me in His Word. I will forever more be in His service.
I’ve not had a tough life, for now I can I count it all joy. This took much practice Brethren. The ability to praise Him for all things even the things we deem as bad things starts off with very feebly attempts, but with much excercising of these praise muscles, I am determined to fully grasp this Holy principle. If I hadn’t have gone through all that I went through, I would never know Him today in His fullest. Well, as full as I can know Him in this flesh anyway. I thank my wife Judy for sticking by me. I don’t know where I would have ended up without her, spiritually dead in sin most definitely, she stuck by me and kept me going. I now have 4 grown children and 4 grand children. Looking back 10 years ago, I never would have dreamed I would see them. The seeds of what I have learned and am continuing to learn, I hope to pass on to them for them to sow and cultivate in their garden. But that’s the ever powerful and merciful work of God’s Grace and the Cross of Christ. It is the Power to overcome with joy. The everyday confrontaion of the trials and tribulations of life are still here, they will always be here. But we have learned to shrug our shoulders, petition our Father's will and count it all joy. And in in that; We continue to learn. Praise His Holy Name!
My name is Will Gasek. I'm 45, married with 4 grown children and 4 grandchildren. The first thing that really sticks in my mind starting my life off is waking up to go to school one morning when I was 7 years old to find my Dad dead of a heart attack next to me in bed. My mom and dad were divorced and I was living with Him. This facilitated me moving back with my mom who I didn’t really know, as she gave custody to him while she kept my younger brother. I loved him very much, he was my only world.
