Those who wait, scripture tells us, are renewed. The text does not, alas, reveal how long the wait might be.

Ten years. Rod Turner, a man of strong faith, was prepared to wait that long. He was prepared to wait that long for a healthy kidney. Because that’s what they told him.

Three to five years is how long it typically takes for a suitable donor to manifest, but finding a match is an inexact quest shaped by myriad factors. (An Alabama woman was on dialysis for eight years before recently receiving a new kidney, becoming just the fifth American ever to receive a gene-edited pig organ.)

So, Turner — an award-winning gospel producer from Birmingham — was told: Just be prepared. To wait.

Ten years.

That was almost five years ago. Almost five years now since Turner’s faith was tested. Since he received a call from a doctor telling him to head straight to the emergency room. Blood tests showed his kidneys were chugging at only 2% efficiency, meaning toxins were gathering in his body as he sped along the highway. Toxins that could kill him.

“I get there,” Turner recalls. “They put a stint in my neck, and I’m sitting there like: Lord, what just happened? Faith became real to me at that point.”

Turner (I noted his need for a kidney a few months ago) is the musical director at Rock City Church (my home church) and a producer for our senior pastor the Rev. Mike McClure, Jr., a top-selling 19-time Stellar Award-winning gospel artist. (Most call him PMJ, he records as Pastor Mike Jr.).

Turner’s name is also on one of those Stellar Awards as a producer for PMJ’s “Winning,” which won Album of the Year and Contemporary Album of the Year. Turner is credited for PMJ’s first major hit: “Big,” which spent 48 weeks on the gospel airplay chart — 10 weeks at No. 1.

“There would be no ‘Big’ without Rod,” PMJ says.

The two men met on the campus of Miles College in Fairfield. Turner, now 35, was a sophomore back then. The child of a musically gifted family from the neighborhoods of Inglenook and Prattville — Grandma was an organist and album producer, Dad played bass, pretty much all the uncles and aunties sang — had sneaked downstairs at Prentice Hall on campus to practice a few tracks. He had a few minutes before the start of youth services led by a young minister he’d recently met.

The young minister arrived early. He listened to the kid at the keyboards. The young men vibed time and time again before services.

“One day he told, me,” Turner recalls, “‘Man, you’re going to be special; stick with me.’”

Turner did just that, joining PMJ as the young minister fine-tuned his ministry and music.

Turner had struggled with high blood pressure since high school, but generally had it under control with medication. One day while on the road with PMJ, he suddenly felt tired. “This time, dramatically,” he remembers, “like I ran miles, but I hadn’t done anything all day.”

A week later, Turner was on that highway when the doctor called. When his faith and the wait became real.

Donating a kidney is a multi-step testing process that often thwarts the most well-meaning donor. Many people stepped forward in hopes of donating to Turner, including his brothers, but failed to qualify for one reason or another.

“People in the church came up and said, ‘Hey, I’m trying to give you a kidney, man,’” Turner recalls. “They came back and said, ‘Well, I can’t do it because of the genetic test,’ or ‘I can’t do it because of this.’ They didn’t have any major issues, but I was like: Man, this is very hard.”

So, Turner waited. Waited while undergoing dialysis — nine hours each night connected to a machine flushing his body of the toxins his kidneys could not purge.

Then one recent Sunday a woman at Rock City whom he did not know walked up to Turner.

“We had just gotten done with service,” Turner says. “She says, ‘Hey, the Lord told me I was gonna be able to give you a kidney.’ I didn’t know her at all.”

Turner shared with her that he was registered on waiting lists in Atlanta and Nashville but told her she could get tested at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

“Two weeks later,” he says, “she texted me: Does this date sound good to you? She’s talking about a date for transplant surgery when I had no idea she had made it all the way through the process. Then it hit me: I’m about to get a kidney.”

The wait is almost over. Just ahead of this season of giving, this season of faith — renewal is on the way.

“While I’m sitting around here begging other people, God already had a plan,” Turner says. “You can’t do nothing but love a God like this. You can’t beat God.”

Almost 90 percent of the 106,000 people on the national transplant list are waiting on a kidney, according to the American Kidney Fund.

In January, Turner is scheduled for transplant surgery. He can’t wait to be removed from that list.

“…those who wait for the Lord

Will gain new strength;

They will mount up with wings like eagles,

They will run and not get tired,

They will walk and not become weary.”

–Isaiah 40: 31