Charles discovered a degenerative problem in his spine after a fall, leaving him to battle the pain. Coupled with a sudden eye condition that threatened his independence, he searched for something that would lift his spirits—and found healing.
Read Transcript
NARRATOR: In 2013,
Charles Lockridge
was sitting down in a
chair when it broke.
Feet went up, and
I landed on my back.
NARRATOR: The next
day, he started
feeling a sharp pain in his back
between the shoulder blades.
Just wouldn't go away.
It wouldn't stop.
And it just felt like
somebody was jabbing
me all the time or something.
NARRATOR: After battling
the pain for a few months,
he went to his doctor who
put him in physical therapy.
It helped for a while, but
the pain soon came back.
Almost two years later, the
pain became more insistent,
and it was starting to become a
regular part of my life again.
That's when I went
back to the doctor's.
NARRATOR: Surgery was an
option, but his doctor first
wanted him to try a more
extreme physical therapy regime.
And they sent me off to
what's called a back boot
camp, where you
specifically work
on strengthening your back.
It's intensive.
NARRATOR: The therapy only
gave him temporary relief,
and Charles found it difficult
to keep up his normal life.
It impacts your quality of
life, because you're in pain,
and being in pain wears you out.
You can't do a lot of the things
that you would like to do.
When there's pain involved,
you just want relief.
NARRATOR: One morning in 2016,
he woke up to another problem.
I could not see
out of my left eye.
All I could see was some
shapes and just some colors,
and everything would
be very, very fuzzy.
NARRATOR: He was diagnosed
with Bell's palsy,
a condition that weakens
the muscles in the face.
It also left his
eye red and swollen.
If my back's messed up,
and this is messed up,
and now I can't even see,
what am I going to do?
I can't work.
I couldn't make any
sense out of it.
NARRATOR: The doctor
gave him medication
for his facial muscles, but
it would take at least four
to six months for
his eye to heal.
CHARLES: They really had
nothing for the eye, just a wait
and see at that point.
I just kept praying.
I kept praying.
You know, sometimes my
frustration would come out.
And, you know, hey,
what's taking so long?
NARRATOR: Two months
later, Charles
was watching TV at his home.
If I'm at home by myself,
I'll turn on the TV,
and I'll look for something that
I think will lift my spirits.
That day I just ran
across the 700 Club
then Terry starts praying.
TERRY MEEUWSEN:
Someone else, you've
had a fall that's really
thrown your back out of whack,
and nothing you take
seems to help at all.
God's healing that
for you right now.
Just receive it.
PAT ROBERTSON: Thank you, Lord.
Thank you, Lord.
And I didn't necessarily
know that it was for me.
But when she prayed
for the eye--
TERRY MEEUWSEN: [INAUDIBLE] you
have a condition with your eye.
It's like the very rim
top and bottom gets red,
and there's a crustiness
that comes from it,
but it's very irritating.
God's healing that
for you right now
I just knew.
I just knew that it
was, that it was for me,
and I started saying thank you.
I started saying
thank you, Lord.
So I woke up the next day,
and the eye was better,
like just all the way better.
As soon as I woke
up, I noticed it.
NARRATOR: Charles also
noticed something else.
CHARLES: Over the next
week, all of a sudden
it dawned on me that my
back doesn't hurt anymore.
NARRATOR: With his back
pain completely gone,
Charles went back to work and
has been working pain-free ever
since.
CHARLES: Sometimes
it takes trust in Him
when it doesn't
look like there's
anything happening, where
every indicator is, no,
it's not going to work.
And I think sometimes God
looks for those situations
because then it's clearly Him.
[MUSIC PLAYING]