My name is Grady Vines (GVines). I am 43 years old. I was born in East Point, GA. I currently live in Lawrenceville, GA, which is about 35 miles northeast of Atlanta, GA. I have been happily married to my wife, Marcia, for 20 years this coming September 26th.
We have 5 children, Cole who will be 17 on the 5th of May, John who will be 14 on the 3rd of April, Joseph who just turned 12 on the 12th of January, Faith who turned 9 on December 24th and Paul who turns 6 on February 26th.
My wife and I home school our children, which keeps her very busy. This also requires her to be a stay at home mom, which she enjoys. I am a computer programmer and have been one for 16 years, 15 years as a mainframe programmer and the past year as a Java developer.
Our children stay very involved in sports and music lessons. Cole my oldest son, plays football for a home school football team, the Georgia Force ( www.forcehighschoolfootball.com ) and he also played baseball for about 8 years, John played baseball for 3 years, but now takes tennis lessons, Joseph is my baseball player. He’s been playing since he was 5. He is very talented and has made all-stars several times. His talent lies in pitching. Although he lacks at this point in the velocity part he makes up in accuracy. Which in my opinion is more important at his age. Faith also is taking tennis lessons and Paul……well he’s only 5 so all he does is keep up busy keeping him out of things.
We attend Providence Church in Duluth, GA. God led us to Providence 4 ½ years ago and under the teaching of our pastor my family and I have been blessed with tremendous spiritual growth and knowledge. I was brought up in the church, but I have learned more in the past four years under Pastor Ty Blackburn’s expository style of preaching than I have in my entire life. I thank God daily for allowing me the opportunity to serve the people at Providence as the Mercy Ministry Coordinator and Webmaster ( www.providenceduluth.org ). If you are ever in the Duluth are please stop by and visit us.
I come from a family of 3 children, with 1 older sister and a younger brother. They both live in Convington, GA about an hours drive from me, which also happens to be where my parents live also. My father was in the military for 22 years. He was a Green Beret serving in the Special Forces. He served 2 tours in Vietnam and 1 tour in Korea. I am very proud of my father. In fact had it not been for my health problems I would have followed my father’s footsteps with a career in the military.
However, God had other plans for me. You see, I was born with a congenital heart defect, which was complicated by pulmonary hypertension. My condition was diagnosed at 7 months of age. At the time the doctors really didn’t think there was anything that they could do for me. They really gave my parents no hope for my survival. I can remember growing up as a child and even as an adolescent going to the doctors and my parents meeting with the doctors one on one and it was inevitable that they would come out of the doctors office crying. It wasn’t until years later that I would find out why. You see, the doctors kept telling my parents that I would never make it any further than I was. That I would never live long enough to attend school……that I would never live long enough to attend high school…..that I would never live long enough to graduate high school……that I would never be able to father children……..that I would never make it to 30…..to 40.
Well, as you can tell, God had other plans. To be honest with you I had a relatively normal childhood. Sure, I had my limitations. I couldn’t play as long as most of the other kids. I couldn’t run as long and as far as the other kids. But I did play baseball for 2 years when I was 10 and 11 and I did play softball for about 4 years as a teenager in high school. I also played volleyball as a young adult. So, you see, God really blessed me even though the doctors didn’t give me or my parents any hope.
However, reality set in shortly after I turned 40 years old. My health quickly deteriorated in just a matter of months. I was forced to go in disability and that in itself was a lesson in humility and pride. Being the son of a father that was a Special Forces solider, who already could not follow in his fathers footsteps, and having to go on disability was one of the hardest things I think I had ever had to do at that time in my life. But a series of events and conversations with some close friends reassured me that I was doing what was best for the long term security and health of my family and myself.
The biggest influence first and foremost was God, second was my wife and third was my pastor. I was now faced failing health to the point that I now needed a bi-lateral lung and heart transplant. At first I wasn’t aware, or maybe I didn’t want to accept, how urgent I really needed this surgery so I decided I wasn’t going to have the surgery. That is until I was hospitalized in June of 2004. Up until that time I had always told my wife I never wanted to know if the doctors told here that I was going to die within a given time. I figured it didn’t matter, of God is going to call me home, he’s going to call me home whether I know a time or not……boy, how wrong was I. Well, my wife really prayed over what I said and she really felt lead to have the doctors give me the news and a timeline. So, the doctor came in to my hospital room and told me that if I didn’t have the transplant that in there medical opinion I would not be alive in 6 months. Boy, what a shock! I’m now being told I have six months to live.
It’s 10:00 at night. I call my pastor. In fact he had just left the hospital about 30 or 45 minutes ago. He turns around comes back. We tell him what the doctor just told us. We pray, we cry, and we pray some more. Then I remember a conversation my pastor and I had some time back when he was disciplining me. He told me you need to live your life with an “open palm”. Meaning, God has entrusted you with numerous things…such as your family, your career, your finances, your health and your to care for these things and be a good steward of all these things, but you are also to remember that they are God’s and his to do as he wills. And if it’s his will that he take one of these or all of these then you have to believe and have faith that is for his good. We may not understand and it may be hard to accept in our sinful flesh, but we need to know that all things that come from God are good. Once I understood this concept, grasped it and lived by it as best I could, and that meant stepping out on faith, did God bless and grant me and my family an unimaginable and indescribable peace. I pray that everyone can someday feel and have that peace. If that peace is a taste of what it is going to be like in heaven, then I can’t wait to get there.
Anyhow, to make a long story short…..I know it’s already been a long story….on December 2, 2004…..6 months after I was told I had 6 months to live…by the grace of God and by the generosity of someone I hope to meet one day in heaven I received my new heart and lungs. My transplant was done at the Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania. My family and I had to actually had to move up there for the surgery, which in itself was an adventure being that none of use had ever lived that far north. I’ll have to say though; the people we came into contact with were the most gracious and caring people. God had gone before us and paved the way, taking care of all of our needs from housing to clothing, to transportation, to finances. As I mentioned earlier the peace that God gave us was truly amazing and it didn’t end with the peace from the fear of the surgery but also peace for the worries of everyday life with being in an unfamiliar area being around unfamiliar people. That’s because God surrounded us with his people and his love and mercy and grace.
I am honored and humbled to have been recognized as the “Driver of the Month” for Christian Racing. I have truly enjoyed the fellowship and racing with each of you. Although, my competitiveness sometimes overrides my spiritual heart please know that I never mean to personally attack any of you. I love each of you as a brother in Christ. If I am ever out of line please feel free to correct me. I am not above reproof. I am so thankful that God led me to this site several years ago. It is such a breath of fresh air to enjoy a hobby with other, especially Christians, and not have to worry about all the foul language and cheating.
In closing, I ask you, are you living you life for God? Are you living your life with and “Open Palm”?
The peace is truly amazing, God Bless,
Grady
Isaiah 40:27-31b
