性视界传媒

Ryan Benson leans into God’s peace despite health complications that take a toll on his body

Ryan Benson has a big heart. He’s known around campus as the guy who leads chapel, who pours into others, and who can’t stop talking about the goodness of God. But fellow students are always surprised when he reveals that heart is, in fact, part pig. 

Born with an offset superior vena cava, Ryan needed heart recreation surgery in order to survive past infancy. There was no guarantee the experimental operation would work, but there were no other options, so his parents sent him to surgery, praying that God would save their son.

Doctors used part of a pig heart to recreate his heart, and the surgery was a success. But that was only the beginning of Ryan’s health challenges. The surgery saved his life, but it also severely weakened his immune system. He grew up in and out of the hospital, unable to go to school like other kids. 

“I didn’t know what each day was going to be,” he says. “I kind of just had to rely on the Lord.”

As the years passed, Ryan and his family adjusted to their new normal, leaning on God every step of the way. Then, at age 10, he developed a serious respiratory illness. The mucus in his lungs crystallized, and he began to throw up blood. Every breath hurt. Doctors told him he didn’t have much time left. 

“It was really hard to hear at 10 years old that I probably wasn’t going to make it,” Ryan says. “You can’t really think about mortality living in a Christian household without thinking of God and asking, ‘What is heaven?’ So I started thinking and praying about these things a lot more.”

The family dropped everything and flew to Rochester, Minnesota, home to the top-ranked hospital in the country for patients with Ryan’s condition. Doctors there agreed to admit him and run tests, but they didn’t hold out much hope for a recovery. They kept him in the hospital for a month, running tests daily, from morning to night. Each test proved fruitless. Ryan was dying, and there was nothing that could be done about it.

To that point, Ryan believed in God because his parents believed in God. Their faith was his faith. But as he lay in the hospital, exhausted and in pain after 28 days of tests, he took his faith into his own hands. That night he called on God, expressing his frustration and pain. 

“I sat with the Lord and just remember thinking these terrible thoughts,” he says. “I thought, ‘You left me, God, you’re not here. Why did you do this? Why aren’t you with me?’ I was so angry. I finished the prayer by saying, ‘God, if you heal me, I’ll praise your name until the day I die.’”

Ryan awoke the next morning to a miracle. His pain was gone, and he could finally breathe. He told his parents about his prayer, and they rejoiced together in the Lord’s faithfulness. The crystallizations in his lungs had completely disappeared overnight, and doctors couldn’t explain how or why. But Ryan and his family knew who was responsible for his recovery.

“The Creator of the universe loves me enough that he wanted me on this earth for a little bit longer,” he says. “I’m so grateful, and I’ve been able to walk in the confidence that he is with me.”

Ryan still gets sick and goes to the hospital often. Navigating his delicate health is difficult, but he knows that God is with him, and that’s what matters. “There is nothing that I can do or say that could change my circumstances,” he says. “But the Lord tells us that peace is not the absence of conflict or hardship. Peace is just relying on the Lord completely. And I’ve found my peace.” 

Now a junior communication major, Ryan is pursuing a career in hospital chaplaincy or possibly youth ministry. Ultimately, he wants to step into difficult settings to help those who are struggling to find peace in the Lord. 

“I lived in the hospital for a long time, and I want to go back to that space and love people well,” he says. “I’ve seen hospitals, and I know what they’re like.”

Ryan has received so much love and support from his family, his friends and his community at 性视界传媒, and he wants to share that with others. 

“It’s so easy for us to think that joy and sorrow can’t be in the same place, but I believe they are intertwined most of the time,” he says. “There’s so much sorrow that we’re going through, and God is our joy.”