There’s nothing insignificant about losing an arm, both legs and the tips of several fingers.
Yet when North Carolina pastor Steve Mathews reflects on the ordeal that nearly claimed his life, he describes it with a surprising word: “light.”
Not because his suffering has been small, but because of the Apostle Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 4:17: “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (NKJV).
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For many believers, the verse has long served as a source of comfort and encouragement during difficult seasons. For Mathews, the verse has become deeply personal.
After what doctors believe began with an insect bite, a rare bacterial infection sent his body into septic shock last December. Mathews spent weeks in the hospital fighting for his life. Multiple surgeries resulted in the amputation of his right arm above the elbow, both legs below the knee and eventually the tips of several fingers on his left hand. Months of rehabilitation followed as he learned to walk again with prosthetic limbs and adapt to a body forever changed.
“I’ve latched onto 2 Corinthians 4, which talks about how we don’t lose heart because our afflictions are light and momentary,” Mathews said. “And they are preparing us for something greater in the age to come that God wants to reveal to us. That has helped me keep perspective.
“I’ve lost an arm and two legs and now five fingertips. That’s light and momentary.”
‘Our light affliction’
Americans know Dec. 7 as the “Day of Infamy” that drew the United States into World War II. For the Mathews family, the date now carries a far more personal meaning.
“That was our own day of infamy,” said Dawn Mathews, Steve’s wife of 29 years.
What began as an ordinary December day quickly became a fight for Steve’s life. A rare bacterial infection known as necrotizing fasciitis sent his body into septic shock. The infection destroys soft tissue beneath the skin and can spread rapidly, making immediate treatment critical.
After being rushed to a local hospital by ambulance, Steve was airlifted by helicopter to Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, where a team of physicians and surgeons worked around the clock to stop the infection’s advance and save his life.
Doctors told Dawn this wasn’t an hour-to-hour emergency. It was a minute-by-minute crisis.
As the bacteria continued to spread, doctors made agonizing decisions after consulting with Dawn. They amputated Steve’s right arm. Later, they removed both of his feet. He was placed on an advanced life-support system as a team of specialists fought to keep him alive.
One physician later admitted to walking into Steve’s room each morning wondering if the pastor had made it through the night. “You were the patient who wouldn’t die,” Dawn recalled the doctor saying months later.
She believes there was another reason Steve survived.
“There were thousands of people praying for him from around the world,” Dawn said.
‘But for a moment’
Steve doesn’t remember much about Dec. 7 or the weeks that followed. He recalls the ambulance ride. Parts of the helicopter flight. Someone placing an anesthesia mask over his face. Then everything went dark.
For the next several weeks, his family prayed, doctors operated and his body fought for survival. Steve remembers none of it. He woke up on New Year’s Eve in a hospital bed with a tube in his mouth.
“The room was dark, and the television was on,” Steve recalled. “I knew it was New Year’s Eve because the ball was about to drop.”
Then he looked down. His lower legs were gone. So was his right arm.
“For me, that moment was raw,” Steve said. “I was just weeping bitter tears for the state I was in.”
Moments later, a nurse walked into the room. Standing behind Steve, she gently wrapped her arms around his head and began to pray.
“That was just a few minutes after the shock of all this hit me,” Steve said. “In that moment, there was the comfort of God through one of His saints. That’s when God reminded me, ‘I’m still sovereign. I still love you. This didn’t surprise Me. I’ve still got you.’”
The days and months that followed were marked by surgeries, rehab and learning how to navigate life with prosthetic limbs. Everyday tasks became new challenges. Progress came slowly and often painfully. It remains an ongoing journey.
The adjustments haven’t always felt momentary, but they have forced Steve to think differently about eternity.
“As a pastor, I’ve preached about eternity,” Steve said. “As a patient, I’m learning what it means.”
‘Working for us’
As Steve recovered, the Mathewses began to realize that while the infection had changed nearly every aspect of their lives, it hadn’t interrupted God’s work.
One of the first signs came through a series of simple Facebook posts. While doctors fought to save Steve’s life, Dawn began posting daily updates from the hospital, sharing his condition and specific prayer requests. What began as a way to keep family, friends and church members informed quickly spread far beyond their own community. Prayers and messages poured in from people they had never met.
Some shared that they had placed their faith in Christ after following Steve’s story. Others wrote to say their marriages had been restored. One widow said she had finally let go of years of anger and bitterness toward God after watching the Mathews family walk through their own suffering.
“It’s a story of hope,” Dawn said. “It’s not my story. It’s not even Steve’s story. It’s God’s story.”
That same hope — and evidence of God’s work — was on display at United Baptist Church in Valdese, a rural town in the foothills of western North Carolina. As their pastor fought for his life, church members gathered to pray, encouraged the family and found practical ways to meet their needs. The church held two fundraisers to offset medical expenses, continued paying Steve’s salary while he was hospitalized and built a ramp at the family’s home.
“They were going through one of the most profound experiences they had ever been through as a church and many of them personally as well,” Steve said. “There really was a spirit of revival throughout all of this. God was at work.”
Steve admitted that not being able to return to ministry was one of his biggest fears.
“I know God called me to preach and teach His Word,” Steve said. “And the thought that I might not be able to do that anymore was just heartbreaking.”
Instead, his congregation eagerly welcomed him back.
Steve returned to United Baptist on April 12 for a special service of praise and testimony. The following Sunday, he preached his first sermon since the illness. Since then, the congregation has continued finding thoughtful ways to help him adjust.
After one Sunday service, a church member noticed Steve couldn’t comfortably rest his prosthetic feet beneath the stool he now uses while preaching because it was too high.
“He took the stool home, cut it down and brought it back,” Steve said. “He said, ‘Preacher, you just didn’t look comfortable up there.’ It was perfect.”
Earlier this summer, Steve administered the Lord’s Supper for the first time since returning to the pulpit.
“And I didn’t spill the tray,” he said, smiling.
The Mathewses also said their marriage has grown even stronger through the experience.
“If we could go back to Dec. 6 and erase everything that has happened since, we wouldn’t,” Dawn said. “We’ve seen God show up in ways we’ve never seen before. We’ve been in ministry together for 30 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Steve agrees.
“God has used this experience to work in the lives of countless people,” Steve said. “And He continues to do so.”
‘A far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory’
As Steve continues his recovery, he has come to understand that God did not take away his ministry. He transformed it.
“For all my life, my ministry has been to preach and teach the Word,” Steve said. “Now God has moved me into this season where my ministry is to suffer well.”
Steve knows that suffering is not something Christians escape. It is something believers walk through while trusting in the faithfulness of God.
Echoing the words of Paul, Steve does not minimize the pain of what he has endured. The surgeries, the amputations and the long road of rehabilitation have been real. But so has God’s sustaining grace.
And through it all, Steve points to an even greater miracle than his physical survival.
“The miracle is not that God saved my life,” Steve said. “The true miracle is that God saved my soul.”
Steve knows that his prosthetic legs will not last forever. One day, they will wear out. And one day his earthly life will come to an end. Steve said his experience has given him a renewed urgency to use every day God gives him for the sake of the gospel.
“Now I really have a sense of urgency,” Steve said. “I should be dead, but God spared me. Every day that I get from Him is a gift, and I want to use it for the kingdom.
“If He wants two feet and an arm for His glory and for His gospel to be proclaimed, how could I be bitter about that?”
EDITOR’S NOTE — This article was written by Chad Austin and originally appeared in the summer 2026 edition of the Biblical Recorder magazine.
