“ About noon, King Agrippa, as I was on the road, I saw light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. We all fell to the ground …. Acts 26:13-14 . In the book of Acts, the first history of the church, Saul/Paul tells the story of his conversion at three different times in three slightly different ways. The writer tells it the first time, and then Saul/Paul tells it to two more powerful, including King Agrippa. Paul/Saul became the leader of the church.
I will be 10 years old on Sunday ( the 26th ) because I had a heart attack ten years ago, and was resurrected ; and have been given new life. I still have no recollection of leaving the Sip and Bite restaurant, or driving home, or dropping over in between my kitchen and dining room. I remember coming to a new life, about a day and after later, in the Grand River Hospital. After a week at the hospitals, I had surgery that completed the resurrection of my body. All the people who helped save my life, say that they did only what they were trained to do. This includes my wife who did CPR, the fireman who defibrillated me, the cardiologist who examined me, and the surgeon who did the bypass procedure. The reason that I survived is beyond them, a miracle.
So, after ten years , I tell the story ( like Paul) a little differently. My wife had just been re-certified in her CPR. The Floradale Church were notified immediately, and began to pray. The defibrillator that was used to revive my heart was partially funded by money that came from the estate of Violet Lichty, a former resident of Floradale. She had over forty cats when she had left the village. I visited her often when she lived in the village. She was a feisty woman, who was known as the “Cat lady ” in town. She died in 2003, and I was resurrected in 2007. Thanks Violet.
The local fireman did CPR after they arrived at our house. Then, they hooked up the defib machine and jump started me once, and then they listened to the machine, and did it a second time. And, I have been told, my heart rate began to slow down, and my resurrection story continued. A few weeks later, another man fell over at his house with a heart attack, and he did not survive.
Why me ? There are no answers to this question, or many others that I have about life and faith. After ten years, I celebrate that I have life. I have been able to do many things since the day that I was resurrected. But I have found no answer to the question, why was I saved ? And I do not look for the one reason that I am still here. I am here because I am here.
One man, Maurice, used to joke with me that God in heaven had not finished framing my house. That answer is as good as any that I know. I live with the uncertainty that I am not sure why I am still alive, but that keeps me having a deeper faith in God. I do not yet know everything, but I want to celebrate with this community, living into my healing.
Thank you to everyone who has been part of my resurrection before, during and after that day, ten years ago, just a little after the noon hour in the small quiet village of Floradale. The stone was rolled away for me on that day. Thanks be to God.
Ponder Anew 