This weekend I got an email from a longtime friend that
rocked me to the core.
My friend, Shawn woke up one morning to an intense pain in
his lower leg. As he started to put all of the symptoms into a website it came
back as DVT (blood clots in the deep veins of his leg). Knowing this wasn't
something to blow off, he hopped into his car and headed to the ER.
He described the picture perfect ER visit, he got right in,
was diagnosed with DVT, given medications, a care plan and then sent on his
way. Once he got to his car is where it gets scary. He says " As soon as
my butt hit the seat it feels like someone grabbed both of his lungs in their
hands." In less than three seconds,
he went from chest pain, to Oh crap, to unconsciousness. According to the
doctors he should have died where he sat, but by God's Grace he woke up,
disoriented knowing he need to get back inside of the hospital. He pulled
himself out of the car and only made it halfway before he felt himself going
out again, so he laid down in the roadway of the parking lot, thinking someone
would find him. No one did and again by God's Amazing Grace he woke up again
determined to get into the hospital. In pure survival mode, he made his way
back into the hospital and yelled for help. I'm so happy to announce that after
a 5 day stay in the hospital and what could be a lifetime of medications he is
doing well. I can't help but think that God had His hands on him that day, and
at times picking Shawn up and carrying him to safety.
Bigger than what had happed to him physically, was what had
happened to him spiritually and emotionally. Shawn says "as a man, father, husband,
Marine, and Police Officer, I always felt like I was in control. I talk about
God and saying that everything happens for a reason and that life is in God's
hands, but I don't think I really believe that until now." Shawn's overwhelming thought since that day is
how fast this all happened. He had no time to think of his wife and children or
his relationship with God. It brings him to tears every time he thinks about
it.
Before this happened he had been struggling with the feeling
that he wasn't close enough to God, or that he wasn't doing enough as a
Christian man to really call himself a Christian. He says with absolute truth
that several times he thought "I will get to that later, I'm just too busy
with everything else."
To this I say, Shawn, it's not what YOU DO that makes you a
Christian, it's what Jesus DID that makes you a Christian. God reminds us of
that often and sometimes that discipline hurts...a lot! God wants 100% of our
hearts, that is where we start, making God central in our lives and let everything
else flow from that.
Shawn's point: Don't wait for one day get yourself right, let
God redeem your relationships with friends, family and more importantly Himself.
God is in control and only He knows which day will be your last and you have to
be ok with that.
This email was sent to his family and friends as a call to
action, to stop putting the important things off until tomorrow, for tomorrow
may never come.
Matthew 24:36 "But concerning that day and hour no one
knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only."
Jason
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