How an Incurable Diagnosis Led to an ‘Incurable Faith’

Andrea Herzer was an active young mother of three when unbearable pain left her suddenly bedridden. Since then, she has endured many years of illness, including cancer and a debilitating, chronic pain disorder.

Today, Andrea is blessing others with her wisdom, faith, and perseverance in the midst of ongoing suffering.

Hear her powerful story in this new episode of GPS: God. People. Stories.

You can connect with us through email at gps@billygraham.org or on Billy Graham Radio on Facebook.

Transcript

MUSIC STARTS

Andrea Herzer: 
00:00:01 My life was very, very full. I was involved in my children’s activities. I would volunteer with Daisies, which is part of Girl Scouts. I would volunteer as a Bible study leader and in my children’s classrooms.

Jim Kirkland: But after Andrea Herzer’s third child was born, she began to experience pain that was debilitating. It was pain that caused this active mom to be confined to her bed.

Andrea:
00:00:29 I would tell my husband it feels like I’m dying. I don’t know what’s happening to me.

Jim: Andrea is sharing her story in our fourth and final installment of our summer podcast series on GPS. This series is entitled, “The Great Physician.” I’m Jim Kirkland.

Phil Fleischman: And I’m Phil Fleischman. You’re listening to GPS: God. People. Stories., it’s an outreach of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. 

As we’ve explored in this series of GPS, many people are in need of physical healing, as well as spiritual healing. Billy Graham often shared the source to spiritual healing, which is available to all of us through Jesus Christ. 

Billy Graham: 
00:01:08 All the many spiritual diseases that can touch a man can be healed by His stripes. Evil flees before Christ as the shadows vanished before the sun.

Phil: You’ll hear more about what Mr. Graham had to say about spiritual healing right after we listen to the rest of Andrea Herzer’s story. First, though, we want to give you a website to go to if you find yourself having any spiritual questions as you listen to this episode. The site is FindPeaceWithGod.net. You can find answers there and you can even chat with one of our trained—and compassionate—volunteers. It’s all free and it’s all available 24 hours a day at FindPeaceWithGod.net.

Intro: GPS: God. People. Stories.

MUSIC TRANSITION

Andrea:
00:01:57 I’m Andrea Herzer. I grew up with two siblings in Miami, Florida, and I’m the daughter of a physician.

Jim: From the outside looking in, it seemed Andrea’s family wanted for nothing.
 
Andrea: 
00:02:08 We had a palatial home on the bay, we went to private schools, we took trips abroad, but the reality was that our home life was very difficult.
 
Phil: Andrea’s parents got divorced when she was young.

Andrea:
00:02:21 I was 8 years old, but the reality is that they were separated for much of my early years, so I honestly did not spend a whole lot of time with my dad.
 
Phil: During those years with her mom, Andrea went to church most Sundays.

Andrea:
00:02:38 But the grace and kindness and mercy of Christ were not really modeled in my home. Bible verses were cherry-picked and used as discipline or weapons. And so I didn’t really know what it was to have a life-transforming relationship with the Lord. But I would see friends of theirs and mothers of my friends who really did model the love and gentleness of Christ, and I knew there was something different about those women. So it turns out, they were walking in the Spirit.
 
Jim: One of those moms who lived out her faith through the Holy Spirit was a woman named Mrs. Wu, the mom of one of Andrea’s bother’s friends. Mrs. Wu invited children from the area into her home for Bible stories and fun, which she called “Mrs. Wu’s Good News Club.”
 


Andrea: 
00:03:31 I think at that time she was simply a homemaker who was obeying God’s call to reach children, and she would just open her home and do little flannel board stories, and it was one of the highlights of my childhood.
 
Jim: Little Andrea accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord at Mrs. Wu’s house. After that, she was eager to share her faith with other children. 

Andrea:
00:03:54 I actually got in trouble for witnessing to children on the playground. [laugh] So I really would learn verses and I took everything to heart. And during some of the more difficult times in my childhood, I had this little white baby Bible, and I would read the Psalms and I would pray and I would just feel the comfort of Christ in those moments. But then I also experienced physical abuse, and the excuse for that was that the Lord was instructing this parent to do those things. And I know now, of course, that that is not Biblical. That is not a proper interpretation of Scripture. Yes, we discipline our children in love, but not to those extents.
 
Phil: Andrea moved in with her father and stepmother a short time after her parents divorced.

Andrea:
00:04:45 And then I spent a few years in boarding school. Although my relationship with my mom remained complicated until she died, I’m able to hold love and good memories of her in my heart through the power of forgiveness. And my stepmom and my dad are my biggest supporters and prayer warriors. So that has been a source of much solace and comfort and strength in my life.
 
Phil: Even though Andrea embraced Jesus Christ at a young age, the abuse she experienced during her early years played a role in pulling her away from her faith in Christ.

Andrea:
00:05:26 So I think because of that and some other experiences, I had fallen away and I did not believe that Jesus was even real. I thought He was like the Easter bunny. It was just some figment of people’s imagination.
 
Jim: As Andrea graduated from high school and made her way to Auburn University, it appeared as though she had lost her faith, but God was still working out His plan, even as Andrea realized Auburn was not the right place for her.

Andrea:
00:05:54 I found that a big school—and this is where there were rumblings of my health issues at that point, because I would just get exhausted walking from class to class. I would have seasons where I could run and I was active and I would do aerobics and then I would have seasons where I could hardly even make it to class. And so I began to find that a big college campus just wasn’t for me, and I ended up at a smaller Christian school in Texas.
 
Jim: That’s where the seeds of faith that God planted in Andrea’s life through women like Mrs. Wu grew and blossomed.

Andrea:
00:06:32 And as I dove into Scripture and started learning that there was historical proof for Jesus, I read Evidence That Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell. And it was during one evening when I was reading that book and I had started implementing Biblical principles into my life, and I saw the freedom that I was gaining through that, the peace and the joy. I finally submitted and surrendered my will to the Lord, and I prayed to receive Him as my Savior, and my life was radically transformed in that moment.
 
Phil: Andrea was 19 years old when she made that decision to invite Jesus Christ into her life for good.
 
Jim: Next came a degree in elementary education and a job as a first grade teacher.

Phil: And, a wedding. Then, once Andrea and her husband Mark began to have children, Andrea enjoyed being home with them.

Andrea:
00:07:28 I spent a short time as a children’s ministry director and volunteering at church, and my life was very, very full. I was involved in my children’s activities. I would volunteer with Daisies, which is part of Girl Scouts. I would volunteer as a Bible study leader and in my children’s classrooms. But, after our third child was born, maybe within a few months, I went from being that active wife and mom and to being bedridden in pain.
 
Phil: It was a scary time. The pain affected every part of Andrea’s life.

Andrea:
00:08:07 It seemed like my body was breaking down bit by bit, because it wasn’t just that my muscles were on fire, I could hardly walk upstairs, it felt like there was more gravity on my body. I would tell my husband it feels like I’m dying. I don’t know what’s happening to me.
 
Jim: So, in the midst of raising three young children, Andrea embarked on a painful and time-consuming medical journey. 



Andrea:
00:08:31 I was having to see urologists and OBGYNs and having really radical surgeries and visiting neurologists and rheumatologists, who performed procedures and installations and infusions. So that became a part of my journey. And that’s when I first started writing because I wanted to be active. I wanted to use my gifts of encouraging and teaching and uplifting. So I started writing devotions just in my journals.
 
Phil: Andrea’s first set of diagnoses included fibromyalgia—a chronic pain disorder—and interstitial cystitis—a chronic bladder disorder that can also be very painful and uncomfortable.

Jim: Then, seven years after those diagnoses, an injury to Andrea’s dominant hand led to what’s known as Complex Regional Pain Syndrome or CRPS.

Andrea:
00:09:30 It causes disability; insomnia, because of the excruciating pain; and it can spread throughout your body. So although it started in my hand, it soon spread to my feet, my knees, my other limb, my other hand, and some internal areas. 

Phil: We’re going to let Andrea explain more about CRPS, since it’s not a common diagnosis, and you might not be familiar with it.

Andrea:
00:09:57 I would love to share that today because Complex Regional Pain Syndrome is often misdiagnosed, and people go from doctor to doctor trying to figure out why they can no longer open and close their hand or why they can’t stand on their foot and now they need to use a scooter. And so I’ll just share this, that it used to be called Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, and it’s a neurological disease that is influenced by the immune system, and it often begins from a surgery or an injury. And both of those triggered my disease. And as I mentioned before, it can also spread to other limbs or areas of the body. And they say that it is one of the most—there’s a McGill pain scale—and it is considered to be the most painful disease because of the burning and crushing pain. It’s nonstop. It’s way out of proportion to what the original injury is.
 
Jim: Here’s two ways Andrea describes CRPS: debilitating and life-changing.

Andrea:
00:11:07 I used to tell my doctors it felt like someone took a grater to my skin and then just poured acid over it. And I spent eight years, mostly homebound, having to use a walker just to take one step out of my bed and having to use a scooter.

Jim: I think it’s hard to wrap your head around that kind of pain if you haven’t experienced it.

Phil: Yeah, I think you’re right, Jim. I can’t imagine—and, honestly, I don’t want to try to imagine just how painful it must be. Fortunately though, Andrea’s CRPS is more manageable for her now than it was during those first eight years.

Andrea:
00:11:42 I am now on a medical regimen and using water therapy, and I am able to walk most days. I do have days where maybe if the distance is really far or if I’m at the airport, I’m in a wheelchair, or I might use my scooter if I’m in a museum or something like that, but you never know what God is gonna bring down the road. You never know what level of restoration you may have. So I don’t want people to lose hope.

Phil: Hope—that is something Andrea has had to cling to again and again. Especially after another diagnosis came along … one you’re sure to be familiar with.

Andrea:
00:12:21 They were doing a medical trial for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, and they took my blood and came back and they said, You can’t enter the trial because there’s something wrong with your platelets. And they told me to go see a doctor. Well, I was exhausted and it was all I could do to just function, take care of my kids to the best of my ability, and I didn’t see a doctor. Probably four months later, five months later, something like that, it was Christmas Day and I noticed a huge growth, a bump on my neck. 

Jim: Andrea’s dad is a doctor, so she texted a picture of the bump to him.

Andrea:
00:13:05 And he just texted back, It looks like lymphoma, but don’t worry, it’s treatable. So I knew that cancer was a possibility. 

Jim: Turns out Andrea’s dad was right. She had cancer—and it was worse than anyone expected.

Andrea:
00:13:20 So the doctor did the scans and they came back and I looked at that scan and it was riddled throughout my entire body. When the biopsy came back, we learned that I had two types of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. One was indolent, which means it’s slow growing, and the indolent form is, you can treat it with chemo and biologics, but it’s something that I will continue to have to treat unless the Lord chooses to heal me entirely, but my doctors consider it incurable in my case. And then the aggressive form—and I had advanced stage of both of these—so the aggressive form was very fast growing, and we had to treat it immediately with aggressive chemo. 
Phil: So on top of the excruciating pain from CRPS, now Andrea was battling aggressive cancer.

Andrea:
00:14:18 When I was diagnosed, in that office, my husband started to cry. It was so overwhelming to him that after everything he had seen me go through that now this was gonna be the journey. And although my crying did come, it came a little bit later, after my first few infusions, but at that time, I just turned to him and I said, We can do this. We know how to do this. Our family knows how to function throughout my health issues, and we have Jesus. We have Jesus! 

Phil: “We have Jesus” became Andrea’s go-to phrase at those times when all of her medical issues felt like they were just too much to bear.

Andrea:
00:15:03 Every time I started to think, “I have cancer,” and it would just take my breath away, the gravity of that diagnosis, I began to replace that thought with, “I have Jesus,” because Jesus is the Name above every other name, even cancer. And so replacing that fear with the soundness and strength and assurance of Christ really gave me what I needed to persevere in those moments.
 
Jim: Andrea’s focus on Jesus was not just all the words. She turned regularly to the Bible in the midst of her suffering—a habit she had developed years earlier when she accepted Christ.

When we asked Andrea how her medical journey has affected her faith, this is what she said:

Andrea:
00:15:52 To answer that, I’d like to refer to a Scripture that I think it really explains it better than I could. And that’s when the Apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 1:8–9, “We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself.” And then he goes on to say, “But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.” And when you are stricken by chronic pain and debilitating, life-altering illness, it is a death of sorts. It’s a death of your old way of life, and you don’t know how you’re going to endure. So from this, I just have taken to heart that when I’m under the great pressure of pain and hardship and health issues, and when I’m reached and stretched beyond my ability to endure, I remember that these things help me not rely on myself, but on God.
 
Phil: Andrea is quick to point out that God has placed people on her path to help her along this journey. She has the love of her husband and family, and also the prayers of faithful friends.


Andrea:
00:17:10 Paul also knew the power of a praying community. He went on in this passage to say, “On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.” So often times when someone is sick, people say, Well, I wish there was something I can do for you. All I can do is pray. And they just don’t realize that that is absolutely the most powerful thing that they can possibly do. Yes, reach out. Yes, see if somebody needs a meal or if they need help with laundry or if they just want you to sit with them, but praying with them and for them really does help them. And then when you start seeing answers to prayer, you will be rejoicing in the Lord and your faith will be strengthened.
 
Phil: And what do answers to prayer look like? Well we’ve seen throughout this series, “The Great Physician,” that many times, God doesn’t heal right here, right now. In fact, each one of our guests this month is still waiting for healing. 

Jim: And that is a hard truth to accept. Andrea would know.

Andrea:
00:18:24 Sometimes the Lord answers our prayers, not necessarily by performing a miraculous healing on this Earth, although He certainly does that too. But, there are times when He miraculously sustains us in our afflictions and in our health issues, and that’s also an answer to prayer. 

Jim: If you’re thinking that Andrea has a lot of wisdom to share, you’ll be glad to know that she just compiled her experiences and her studies into a devotional. It just came out this summer and it’s titled, Incurable Faith: 120 Devotions of Lasting Hope for Lingering Health Issues.
 
Phil: The book’s been many years in the making. Early on in her medical journey, Andrea would write down her thoughts and then share them with a group of chronic pain sufferers. When that group disbanded, Andrea kept on writing.

Andrea:
00:19:18 I would just write down what the Lord was teaching me, or Bible verses you know, stories that gave me inspiration, or maybe I’d look up the Greek or Hebrew words and find just a treasure in what the Lord was teaching me. And so I had been writing those things for a long time.
 
Jim: And now Andrea gets to enjoy the fruit of her labor, as she hears from men and women who are blessed by her writing.



Andrea:
00:19:44 Last week, a beautiful young woman reached out over Instagram and she wanted to tell me that she had been reading Incurable Faith as she got infusions in the hospital. And she wrote, “Your words are such a comfort and a balm for me. The Lord is speaking through you and I’m so grateful for you.” And so my prayer has always been, and it’s gonna continue to be, that the Lord would impart exactly what each person needs through the Scriptures and devotions and prayers and worship songs in Incurable Faith, because it’s important to know that you’re not alone when you’re sick. It’s important to receive from the Lord exactly what He wants to give you, to impart His encouragement and comfort.
 
Jim: As for Andrea’s illnesses, she continues as best as she can to practice the hope that she preaches.

Andrea:
00:20:40 So I still have CRPS, but my aggressive form of lymphoma is in remission. Praise God. However, I’m still fighting the more indolent form. Two years after I ended my first set of treatments, it started growing again. And they do something called ‘watch and wait,’ which means that they watch the growth, they chart it, and when it starts interfering with your life or pressing on, you know, your kidneys, or in my case, I was having some kidney failure, and it became very, very difficult for me to breathe. My oxygen plummeted, and so that’s when I finally went back into the hospital to start treatment again. And I did that, I guess back in November, and treated for a few months, but I have put that on pause a little bit so that I can have the energy to share my story with people, and we’re gonna revisit what treatments I need, maybe sometime this summer. 

Jim: Of course, Andrea still seeks healing—whether it’s directly from God or through doctors and treatments. But two decades of chronic illness have taught her some key truths.

Andrea:
00:22:00 I used to just pursue healing like someone that was starving for it. I was hungry for healing and I was gonna order everything on the medical menu that could possibly provide it. And what I’ve come to realize, even though medical treatments are, of course, necessary and good and the Lord does provide doctors and wisdom, and we need to take advantage of all that, I’ve learned that what I need the most is the eternal and abundant life that Jesus gives me. And my book is one way to invite others to discover Christ’s sustaining love in their own lives so that they can be steadfast and have strength and peace amid their own challenges.
 
Phil: As Andrea trusts God in the midst of her own illnesses, the one thing she would like people to know more than anything else is this:


Andrea:
00:22:55 Our health issues are not a punishment for sin, because Jesus took the complete punishment for all of our sins. And I think often times people begin to think erroneously that their health issues are somehow a barometer of God’s love or favor and they’re not. Your health issues, your challenges, your traumas, your trials are not a barometer of God’s love, blessing, and favor in your life. And when you really begin to embrace that the Lord loves you and He can work good in your life, even amid the most devastating challenges, it changes your faith. I know for me, I used to think that because I was a faithful believer, my faithfulness would protect me from trials. 

Phil: But Andrea eventually came to understand that that is not what the Bible teaches.

Andrea:
00:24:00 And so, I talk about this in my book, but I had resolutely ignored all the verses about suffering and all the things that Paul went through and the example of Jesus that He went to the cross for us. And we need to deny ourselves, carry our cross, and follow Him. And sometimes suffering is exactly what He uses to refine our faith, and the refining of our faith makes us more Christlike. It’s sanctification that’s going to give us a greater weight of glory than we can never even begin to imagine.

MUSIC TRANSITION

Jim: Andrea Herzer has been sharing her story with us on this final episode of our summer series, “The Great Physician.” Now, if there’s anything you’ve heard from Andrea that has made you want to ask Jesus to be the center of your life—like He is for hers—we have a place for you to go to right now. It’s this website: FindPeaceWithGod.net. That’s: FindPeaceWithGod.net. Maybe you’re concerned with that you’re not sure where you stand with God but you want to know more. FindPeaceWithGod.net is for you, too. FindPeaceWithGod.net.

Phil: That website, along with this podcast, and everything else we do here at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, they’re all about one thing: helping people have a deep, meaningful relationship with Jesus Christ. And it all started back in 1950 with a young evangelist who wanted to tell the world about Jesus. And you’re about to hear a word from our late founder, Billy Graham. And then one final, and maybe surprising, thought from Andrea.

Voice-over: You’re listening to GPS: God. People. Stories., a podcast production of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

MUSIC STARTS


Billy Graham: 
00:26:04 Seven hundred years before the birth of Christ, Isaiah the prophet, said, “With His stripes we are healed.” The stripes mean all the physical and spiritual sufferings of Christ.

Voice-over: Billy Graham …

Billy Graham:
00:26:16 Sin is a gigantic monster in the sight of God and it must be destroyed. However, blessed be to God, there’s a cure for this disease. There’s a universal cure for this poisonous venom, which is in the bloodstream of every person listening to my voice. The Bible teaches that the stripes of Jesus can cure spiritual disorder. By His stripes, all of our powers are brought to bed to resist the disease of sin. By His stripes, a man is restored to fellowship with God. By the stripes of Christ, there is power to overcome sin daily in your life. All the many spiritual diseases that can touch a man can be healed by His stripes. Evil flees before Christ as the shadows vanished before the sun. Many of you are asking right now, How can I get the stripes of Christ to heal me? The moment you put your trust in Christ, the cure has already begun.

Jim: If you’d like to know more about that spiritual cure, about inviting Jesus into your life today, go to FindPeaceWithGod.net, or you can also call our 24-hour prayer line: 855–255–PRAY. 855-255-7729.

Phil: We want to thank Andrea Herzer and all the guests who have shared their stories and their faith with us during our summer series, “The Great Physician.” We have one more word of encouragement from Andrea, and we hope it’s a blessing to everyone who’s listening, but particularly those who are experiencing a serious illness.

Jim: You might assume that Andrea would skip over the pain and struggles if she could start life all over again, but that would be incorrect.

Andrea:
00:27:59 And I can tell you 100% today, I would go through all of these things all over again if it meant having what I have now and being able to offer others the abundance of Christ and the feast that He’s given me, because I’m simply writing the invitation to the feast, but it’s His feast. And, when you come to Him and you’re searching for Him and you want more of Him in your life, He will never forsake you. He will never leave you. And even in those moments where you feel like you have nothing left to give and you’re just curled up in a ball because of your devastation or your health issues or anything like that, the Lord is there and He sustains us and He holds us close to His heart, whether we perceive it or not, and often times we will perceive it later, but I just wanna encourage people that the Lord is with you and He’s not gonna abandon you during your challenges.
Jim: “The Lord is with you.” We hope you hold on to that promise today … and always. Thanks for listening to this episode, the final, in our series, “The Great Physician.” I’m Jim Kirkland. 

Phil: And I’m Phil Fleischman. This is GPS: God. People. Stories. It’s an outreach of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association—Always Good News.

CLOSING MUSIC

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