Personal Testimony November 8, 2003
"O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The
sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks
be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ." 1 Corinthians 15: 55 - 57 (54)
Faith in Jesus Christ, my risen Savior, has been part of my life
for as long as I can remember. There has never been any doubt in
my heart concerning who He is, what He did, where He is now and
how all of this can affect the life of one who has trusted Him for
salvation. Faith has up grown over the years by degrees and is at
the present, praise His Holy Name, more firmly established as the
focus of my life than ever. There are several reasons for this, but
recently I was brought face to face with my mortality and the exper-
ience, not only confirmed my faith, but gave me a fresh perspective.
Having been one who has never had an inordinate fear of death,
it was still quite revealing to awake from sleep in the early hours
one morning, three months, ago experiencing hard pain in my chest.
At age 63, there was no reason to think this unusual. I was well
aware that death happens to all men. The thing that surprised me
was my attitude toward my very possible impending demise that
morning.
I awoke to the pain, lay there for possibly twenty to thirty minutes
deciding just what to do about it. I thought about calling the Emer-
gency Medical people or one of my daughters-in-law, both competent
R.N.'s. I decided to do neither, but to wait on the Lord. “They that
wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength...” (Psalm) Thinking
of the fallout from heart surgery, extended hospitalization, and the
financial repercussions to the family; it was a no-brainer to me.
I also discovered a complete lack of fear at the prospect of my
personal passing into eternity. One other thing that occurred to me
was the way people normally handle the death of friends and family.
It seems there is great mourning for a time among friends and family
and there may be one or two who mourn for weeks and have regrets
after years. For the most part, however; even friends and family just
return to life and business as usual in short a time and the deceased,
no longer part of life, becomes a non-person. We may speak of seeing
that one again in heaven, remembering pleasant times and humorous
instances in their lives, but that one is no longer the focus of life.
I have always believed we must not let any one incident consume
the rest of life. With some individuals there is an inability to “let go”
of the deceased and death seems to make the departed one more impor-
tant than those left behind. Surviving siblings seem to suffer the most
from parents unable to “get over” the death of a child. One mother who
lost her teenage son, was going to the grave site, maintaining his room
and in general devoting her life to the mourning of her lost son several
years later, as all around her were neglected because of the obsession. I
have seen divorced persons lose their grip on life and allow that one
experience to adversely affect the rest of their lives. .
All of this consideration occurred during a relatively short period
of time at the end of which I rose from the my bed, walked into the kit-
chen, drew 4 ounces of cold water, added 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
and drank it. Within about 5 minutes, my chest pains were gone and
I returned to bed.
I realized this lack of a fear of death was not the result of any inner
personal strength, but of the Lord. I gave thanks to Him for this faith
He has given me and lay there for some time reflecting on what had
happened. A few weeks later, after relating this incident for the first
time to one of my daughters-in-law, a Registered Nurse, I was told
when a patient is received in the emergency room with severe chest
pains, the first treatment issued is an antacid. This procedure sepa-
rates the heart patients from those of us who abuse our bodies by
eating unwisely before going to bed.
donporter 12.03.12
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