"Textbook Faith" | More Than Conquerors with Nick Gresh

Teacher. Husband. Dad. Cancer survivor. Nick Gresh never expected all those roles to collide at once.

Diagnosed with Stage 3 Hodgkin's lymphoma during the very week he began a new teaching position at First Philadelphia Preparatory Charter School, Nick fought to stay grounded for his wife and toddler daughter while navigating chemo treatments, mounting medical bills, and a marriage being tested like never before. From his early days at St. Gabriel's Hall to his current role as Athletic Director at Valley Forge Baptist Academy, Nick's career has always been about pouring into young lives — but it took a cancer diagnosis to show him how much he still needed to learn about surrender.

What does it look like to trust God when you're too sick to get off the bathroom floor? How do you keep a marriage together when the trial is bigger than both of you? And what happened when the bills finally arrived — all $200,000 of them?

"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways." — Isaiah 55:9

Guided by scriptures including Proverbs 3:5-6, 1 Peter 5:6-7, Romans 12:1-2, and Isaiah 40:31, Nick shares how God's provision showed up in ways he never could have planned — and why he refused to let a diagnosis write his story.

This episode will challenge you, encourage you, and remind you that today's test is tomorrow's testimony!

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Lou Lepore: Welcome back to the More Than Conquerors podcast. I'm your host, Lou Laporte. I'm thrilled to host today's podcast with athletic director at Valley Forge Baptist Academy, Mr. Nick Gresh. Nick's a personal friend of mine, husband, father of three, an avid golfer, and I can honestly say from a decade of golfing with this man, I've never seen him three putt.

[00:00:18] Lou Lepore: They call me Nicky Two Putts. Nicky Two Putts. And on the podcast today, Nicky Two Putts. I love it. So you won your league tournament last year, is that correct? 

[00:00:27] Nick Gresh: I did. Uh, we're not gonna talk about the [00:00:30] handicap But that situation itself worked out well for me, and yeah, I won that and Rookie of the Year with a bunch of my buddies.

[00:00:37] Nick Gresh: They would hate to know that I'm talking about it, but just to be reminded, the champ's coming back for year two. So your game's 

[00:00:43] Lou Lepore: doing good, 

[00:00:43] Lou Lepore: though? 

[00:00:44] Lou Lepore: Yeah, 

[00:00:44] Nick Gresh: we're playing 

[00:00:45] Lou Lepore: all right. Very good. Your wife, Felicia, still in the personal training field? 

[00:00:48] Nick Gresh: She is. She's worked, uh, six years for a company called V Shred and work with cancer patients- in her company. And so, you know, any time a person comes looking to lose [00:01:00]weight, they've been through cancer, she automatically gets them, and, uh, we as a family have a very personal connection with that. 

[00:01:06] Lou Lepore: I got it. Golf and personal training. You're the athletic director. Why don't you go ahead and just tell us as, as you guys get married and how life started.

[00:01:13] Nick Gresh: Sure. 

[00:01:13] Nick Gresh: So met my wife back when we were in middle school, and so later in life after we got married, I had just graduated college, and I graduated to be a secondary ed teacher. And I got a job at St. Gabriel's Hall, which is a juvenile placement facility for students from Philadelphia. And I thought to myself, "Boy, I'm excited I'm in education.

[00:01:31] Nick Gresh: I got a job." Getting married couple months after that, and then not a month or two after that, we found out that we were gonna be having our first child. So a lot happening for me right away out of college. 

[00:01:44] Lou Lepore: Yeah, you're definitely in the fight for sure. New marriage, new father, taking on all the bills and all the responsibility, and everything seemed to be going well.

[00:01:52] Lou Lepore: But there was an abrupt change to your situation. What happened? 

[00:01:56] Nick Gresh: That's correct. 

[00:01:57] Nick Gresh: So 2017, I got really, really sick. Didn't really know what was going on. Doctors didn't really know. Shortly after, the sickness, it finally subsided after about two weeks. I had what's called Epstein-Barr virus, put me in the hospital.

[00:02:12] Nick Gresh: And then over the next about six to nine months, I developed a small swollen lymph node, and around the eight or nine-month mark, it finally... it got to a point that I was like, "I need to get this looked at." And so I went to the doctor. They referred me to an ear, nose, and throat doctor, and they [00:02:30] told me right away, "Listen, we don't wanna say it, but the C word comes to mind here."

[00:02:35] Nick Gresh: That ENT doctor- Mm ... confirmed, uh, I got diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. Mm. Um, through the biopsy and ultimately the diagnosis stage, it was stage three Hodgkin's lymphoma. And so I'd been married for about two and a half years. My daughter was two and a half years old, and I got diagnosed with cancer.

[00:02:56] Nick Gresh: It was a very confusing time. 

[00:02:58] Lou Lepore: I can only [00:03:00] imagine what it's like to have all that responsibility and then on the back end find out, oh, you have cancer. A difficult time for you and your family. Absolutely. And to add to things, you were in the middle of a job transition as well. 

[00:03:14] Nick Gresh: Yes. In the middle of my diagnosis, I'm working at the juvenile placement facility, and I thought to myself, 

[00:03:20] Nick Gresh: "Now's the time the Lord is leading me somewhere else."

[00:03:23] Nick Gresh: And little did I know that the Lord had been preparing me to go into the city of Philadelphia itself. So all the [00:03:30] while I'm interviewing, and then I'm also getting diagnosed at the same time with cancer. So I end up getting this job in Philadelphia. Believe it or not, in my interview, I had to tell the principal and the dean of school, "I'm also in the middle of getting diagnosed maybe with cancer."

[00:03:46] Nick Gresh: Hmm. "I don't feel I would be a good employee and a good candidate if I didn't tell you guys this situation up front." On the way home from that interview, they hired me. So they took a leap of faith with me. 

[00:03:59] Lou Lepore: Wow. That is for [00:04:00] sure an open door from God to have that job. For all that to go down like that is incredible, and I'm glad that you were able to g- find that position.

[00:04:07] Lou Lepore: But you had an interesting story about how you were diagnosed officially. Can you share that? 

[00:04:13] Nick Gresh: Yeah. So unfortunately, 

[00:04:16] Nick Gresh: I had to have a doctor's visit on Valentine's Day. It's when my biopsy just, it just lined up with being, getting my results. And so my wife came, and we spent half our Valentine's Day getting the confirmation diagnosis.

[00:04:28] Nick Gresh: And so not [00:04:30] really a day of celebration, but I will say that my wife and I spent that time focused on what God maybe was preparing us for. My wife's career, thankfully she had just gotten a new job, was working many hours, but was doing very well for herself. Right. And so we're very thankful that God provided that not eight months before this diagnosis.

[00:04:54] Nick Gresh: God had planted little seeds here and there of, "Felicia, we're gonna get you a new job. [00:05:00] Nick, we're gonna get you into a new school, but this is all to prepare you for something that's coming." 

[00:05:05] Lou Lepore: One of the many names of God that we find in the Bible is Jehovah Jireh, which means the Lord will provide, and he did that wonderfully for you guys.

[00:05:14] Lou Lepore: But you had to keep working during treatments. So what did your typical week look like? 

[00:05:19] Nick Gresh: What would happen is this: 

[00:05:21] Nick Gresh: I was going through my first couple weeks in Philly, and, uh, before any of my treatment plan started, there's obviously all the different tests you have to go do. So I had, uh, various testing done to see the severity of the cancer, where the cancer was; one of those tests being, uh, called a bone marrow biopsy where ultimately they shove a giant needle in your back, spine.

[00:05:44] Nick Gresh: Then they tap the spinal fluid in the marrow. They have to make sure the cancer didn't enter your marrow. But, uh, once my treatment plan was started, I would go to work Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday Thursday I would show up to the hospital. They'd hook me up [00:06:00]through my port, which was put into my chest, 'cause the chemo is so toxic they don't wanna ruin the veins and stuff- Mm

[00:06:06] Nick Gresh: in the arm, uh, the elbow area. And so what would happen is I would get chemo for about four or five hours, get there at 8:00, probably leave around 1:00. If it was backed up sometimes maybe 2:00. And I had about an hour from then until I got home until I felt the effects, and I was about sick from Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and into Sunday.

[00:06:29] Nick Gresh: Obviously I took off [00:06:30] work Thursday and Friday, but then Monday I went back to work. I had to work. It was a new job. Unfortunately, I didn't qualify for disability because I was new. I didn't even qualify for FMLA at the time. And so I said to myself, "I have this new job. I gotta work. I gotta make money. I gotta support my family.

[00:06:50] Nick Gresh: I gotta basically punch my ticket." Dude, that's a lot. What, what was going through your head at that time? Were you asking God why? Were you praying 

[00:06:57] Lou Lepore: for strength? 

[00:06:58] Nick Gresh: I prayed in [00:07:00] those moments. I looked for a time period where I said, "God, I haven't been equipped to do this. I don't know if anyone is truly equipped to do it until they're doing it."

[00:07:09] Nick Gresh: I think God in those moments says to somebody going through these things, "If you just put all your burdens onto me, I will show you how to deal with them, but first you have to actually put them onto me." In the beginning I know it was easy to say I was, but once you get into treatment four, five, six, once you comb that [00:07:30] hairbrush through your hair and you lose a giant chunk of hair off your scalp, you don't really realize what's happening to you.

[00:07:37] Nick Gresh: Um, I mean, there were countless times I fell asleep in the bathroom hugging the toilet. There were countless times Friday afternoon I'd sleep a lot, and I'd wake up and my sheets would be yellow from sweat and sickness just pouring out of me. It wasn't until probably my eighth treatment that God really said to me, like, "You didn't do anything to deserve this."[00:08:00]

[00:08:00] Lou Lepore: Hm. "

[00:08:00] Nick Gresh: But you're not gonna get through this without me." Mm-hmm. Until you realize that, it's gonna stay difficult. And so it wasn't really until I was about two-thirds done that God really said to me that, "You know, you're not gonna see the light until I'm present in your life." And so once I fully leaned into that aspect of, "Lord, I can't do this without you.

[00:08:25] Nick Gresh: Christ, you are my rock and my strength"- Mm-hmm ... mentally now [00:08:30] I feel prepared to finish the battle. 

[00:08:33] Lou Lepore: What a great example of humbling yourself under the mighty hand of God, that He might exalt you in due time, and casting your care upon Him for He careth for you. That's 1 Peter 5:6-7. Nick, living that out in that situation is not easy, and it took the Lord's strength for you to be able to do that, and I applaud your efforts in honoring the Lord that way.

[00:08:55] Lou Lepore: But you weren't just challenged with the physical toll that the [00:09:00]treatments were taking on your body. There was also some mental challenges with the financial side of things as well, because being in the hospital and receiving these treatments, there's a lot of financial debt that was sitting there waiting for you.

[00:09:11] Nick Gresh: Yeah, so, um, 

[00:09:13] Nick Gresh: being new at my job, it took a while for health insurance to kick in, right? You have to go through that, uh, early probationary period. Uh, now thankfully the school, and this is just another example of how God works, and I didn't even know this when I got hired. I got into my school. Shout out First Philadelphia Preparatory Charter School.

[00:09:33] Nick Gresh: I would be remiss without shouting them out. When I got hired and after the health insurance kicked in, after treatment after treatment after treatment- I found out that my school's insurance, the deductible is 100% reimbursed. That's not normal for a job. No, it is not. At all, you know? Our entire family deductible was reimbursed.

[00:09:57] Nick Gresh: And so what happened was I found this out. [00:10:00] The hospital this whole time had not really been sending the full bill. I'd been paying my co-pay, and then eventually they sent me a bill, and I was literally able to send $150,000 of medical debt- Wow ... to pay off through my job. So the, the total of chemo treatments, I, I think b- per treatment it was between 15 and 20K.

[00:10:23] Nick Gresh: Mm-hmm. Something like that. And so I had 12 treatments. You do a little math there, we're talking [00:10:30] $200,000. Racking up the amount of cost, and obviously health insurance worked everything down, but I'm still a teacher, and I was able to completely cover my medical bills through this job. It was a leap of faith going from Audubon, Pennsylvania to North Philly.

[00:10:46] Lou Lepore: Wow, it definitely was, Nick. And what a reminder that we are to trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not to our own understanding. Proverbs 3:5-6 tell us. You didn't see it coming. I certainly didn't see it coming either. 

[00:10:59] Nick Gresh: It's just [00:11:00] another example of how our limited scope of things is nothing compared to the scope of what God knows.

[00:11:06] Lou Lepore: I think of Isaiah 55:8-9 where it says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," saith the Lord, "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." God may not lead you out of the trial or even from it altogether But if you look closely, you can find Him and His [00:11:30] grace inside of it.

[00:11:31] Lou Lepore: The last thing I think about with not only your physical treatments and also the financial debt, but we're called to love sacrificially with our wives. You're going through these treatments, knocking you out for the entire weekend, which is the time that your wife's off, which would have been date night.

[00:11:46] Lou Lepore: So how did you and your wife fight through that, and what were the challenges to overcome? 

[00:11:51] Nick Gresh: Mm-hmm. I mean, 

[00:11:52] Nick Gresh: my wife and I love each other very much. We've known each other for many, many years. But this was a battle I don't think either of us prepared for, and you know, those early years of marriage are supposed to be times where you and your wife solidify your marriage- Yeah

[00:12:04] Nick Gresh: before even having kids, let alone having a kid and then two years later having a cancer diagnosis. So w- we were learning how to be newlyweds, learning how to be parents, and then trying to keep that all intact at the same time. It was really tough. I know my wife and I really struggled to see, how are we supposed to do this?

[00:12:24] Nick Gresh: I didn't feel prepared. I'm a person who likes knowing and being prepared. My wife [00:12:30] very much similarly does not like those kind of surprises. So for us as a family, it was making sure you stay grounded in what you did. And there were times where- That's right ... I, one of us was grounded and the other one wasn't.

[00:12:40] Nick Gresh: You know, we talk about that triangle in, like, premarital counseling where- Oh, yeah ... the bottom two corners are you and your spouse. The pinnacle is obviously God. Mm-hmm. And the closer you are to God, the closer you are to each other. When we were closer to God, we were closer to each other. That's right.

[00:12:57] Nick Gresh: When we were digging in the trenches and trying to do it [00:13:00] ourselves, that's when we were furthest apart. 

[00:13:02] Lou Lepore: You're doing your best to spend time with your wife and your family. You're working. You're going through treatments. Eventually, things do turn for you. What happened there? 

[00:13:11] Lou Lepore: We were in Baltimore. 

[00:13:12] Nick Gresh: I had just got done my eighth treatment.

[00:13:14] Nick Gresh: I had a very negative experience in the hospital. Felicia said, "Let's go to Baltimore. Let's get away for a while." Doctor calls me, says, "Hey, Nick, we got your test results back. We, we don't see any cancer in that tumor in your neck. As a matter of fact, there's not much evidence of cancer at all in your body, [00:13:30] if any."

[00:13:31] Nick Gresh: And this was a very big surprise. He akin it to, like, a ghost town. The tumor's still there, but there's no evidence of a population or cancer inside. And my wife and I were just so overjoyed that- The treatment that we were nervous about was working. The treatment that I had a literal panic attack in the hospital over where I was just saying to myself, "I'm killing myself to better myself.

[00:13:56] Nick Gresh: I don't understand how this makes sense. What am I doing? Why am I [00:14:00] doing this?" And my wife said, "You just need to stay the course. Stay the course." And truly my wife really reminded me that just because the path is rocky and w- and windy does not mean it's not the right one. And so we were able to spend the better part of that next six to seven months after Belle Amour trying to get our marriage to where it needed to be.

[00:14:21] Nick Gresh: We celebrate 10 years, uh, this past year, 10 years. So 10 years married, we've been through cancer, we have three kids, and I [00:14:30] know that God is the direct reason for that happening. 

[00:14:34] Lou Lepore: James 1:17 tells us that every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights. And the thing about that verse when you study it is that when God says good and perfect gift, it doesn't actually mean a gift that in the moment feels good.

[00:14:50] Lou Lepore: It's actually something that can cause a lot of trouble, but over time makes things stronger as a result of it. That seems to be what God was doing in your life in that season. I think the verse that comes to mind, Ecclesiastes 3:1 tells us,[00:15:00]

[00:15:07] Lou Lepore: "To everything there is a season and a time for a purpose under heaven." What do you think God was showing you in this season? I 

[00:15:16] Nick Gresh: think God was saying to myself, my wife, that despite all the variables you might be facing in life, I, I don't change. I am the great constant. I am not... My [00:15:30] will, my, my path for your life, that's never gonna change.

[00:15:34] Nick Gresh: And so Christ tells me and tells us, "You are not gonna get me to adapt to your will. You need to adapt to mine." Mm-hmm. And I think as a Christian, it's a humbling experience- Yeah, that's so good ... to think about that, that Christ needs us to adapt to His will for Him to be glorified through us. The only way I can glorify God is [00:16:00] if I'm willing to adapt and be malleable.

[00:16:03] Nick Gresh: And I think one of the best things about being a teacher is being able to work with kids who are malleable to be better servants for Him. I gotta take my own medicine. I have to follow my own advice in bending my will. And we're stubborn people, humans, but God is so great if we're just willing to surrender ourselves.

[00:16:26] Lou Lepore: That's it. Romans 12:1-2 [00:16:30] tells us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, which is our reasonable service, it says. And it says, "Be not conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind to prove what is that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God." That's verse two. And I think when we go through trials, the tendency is to run from them instead of press into them.

[00:16:51] Lou Lepore: The world wants comfort. We, as believers, want Christ, and we need to exalt Him in our lives. [00:17:00] So Nick, let's help the Lord's army. If there are people out there right now who are fighting a sickness or are in the middle of a trial and they're going to battle every day, what do you want them to know? 

[00:17:09] Nick Gresh: I would say to them that you did not do anything to deserve this.

[00:17:14] Nick Gresh: This is bigger than you But this is also a time to rely on someone bigger than you. Hmm. This is about God helping you. We- That's right ... are only gonna be able to get help from God once we accept [00:17:30] God's plan, once we're in alignment with His will. If I didn't have God, I don't think I would have fought. I was surrounded by friends and family members even who are not Christians, and their advice was drastically different than the advice of my Christian friends and family.

[00:17:47] Nick Gresh: Not that both didn't want the same outcome for me, but the avenue to that outcome was drastically different. And for me, allowing God to guide me was the best thing I could do. And [00:18:00] for the person going through cancer and going through a sickness, that's what I tell you. Allow God to guide you. Yeah.

[00:18:08] Lou Lepore: That brings in another verse.

[00:18:09] Lou Lepore: Isaiah 40:31 says, "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." And that word wait on the Lord doesn't just mean like you're waiting for a bus, you're waiting for God to do something.

[00:18:27] Lou Lepore: It actually means that you are intertwining [00:18:30] your life with the Lord. You're walking with Jesus, and the promise from Christ is that when you walk with Him, He does the heavy lifting, and you get to be a conduit through which He can work. I'm so encouraged that you never let cancer become a part of your identity.

[00:18:50] Lou Lepore: Your identity has always been in Christ as long as I've known you, and that has been unshakable, to a point where I look and I go, [00:19:00] "I know God's hand is on Nick because there is no way I would th- have that strength in the trial as you've shown." Can you talk about people who may be thinking that their cancer diagnosis is everything in the world, and they're taking their eyes off Christ and putting it on the diagnosis itself?

[00:19:18] Nick Gresh: Sure. 

[00:19:18] Nick Gresh: I never let cancer define me, and I think that's why I'm so comfortable talking about it. Don't allow yourself to be defined by a diagnosis. Allow yourself to be defined by Christ. Christ wants to define your life, and you have to allow yourself to be malleable for Him. And I think God showed me that this cancer diagnosis, while being significant, is not gonna be all of who you are.

[00:19:44] Nick Gresh: God said, "Allow this to be a part of who you are to help 

[00:19:50] Lou Lepore: my kingdom." Yeah, that's so true. The king of our life, the star of our story isn't the trial we went through It's Jesus [00:20:00] Christ who is the author and finisher of our faith- Amen ... Hebrews 12 tells us. I'm encouraged by your story, by your fight to stay faithful to the Savior.

[00:20:10] Lou Lepore: I see how God's worked in your life, and I agree that our identity is in Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says that if any man is in Christ, he's a new creature; that old things pass away and all things are made new. In verse 20, it says that we are now ambassadors for Christ. And Nick Gresh, we see that you are, in fact, an ambassador for [00:20:30] Christ.

[00:20:30] Lou Lepore: Everything that you went through, the highs and the lows, you represented Christ well in the trial and with our show. We thank you for being here today. If you're listening today and you desire to make all things new, then come to Jesus. You can have a relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ.

[00:20:47] Lou Lepore: Your sins will be forgiven, and heaven is your future home. 1 John 5:13 says that these things are written so you can know you have eternal life. It's as simple as ABC. A, admit you are a sinner. Romans [00:21:00] 3:23 tells us that all fall short of the glory of God because we have all sinned. Bring a heart of repentance.

[00:21:07] Lou Lepore: Do a 180. Turn from life your way and do it God's way. B, believe. Believe that Jesus Christ was crucified, buried, and rose again on the third day. C, confess. Romans 10:9 says that if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.

[00:21:28] Lou Lepore: Friend, the distance between [00:21:30] you and going to heaven after this life is one decision away. If you've made a decision for Christ, we desire to help you on your new walk. Email us at morethanconquerorspodcast837@gmail.com or visit our website at morethanconquerorspodcast.buzzsprout.com. A special thank you to our guest, Nick Gresh.

[00:21:50] Lou Lepore: I'm Lou Lepore, your host, and this is the More Than Conquerors podcast, where today's test is tomorrow's testimony. God bless you