Tag: 12stonechurch

Then I died

Through the ups and downs things were manageable until May 17th 2014 when I died. I was out for a run and came in, said hi to Katy and Ella and then dropped. My heart stopped yet 911 was treating me as a seizure since we had a family history of that. For 5 minutes I turned blue while the 911 operator was yelling at the girls NOT to do CPR since it could kill me. It was 5 minutes before the EMT’s showed up and stated CPR.

They worked on me for 45 minutes and “paddled” me 6 or 7 times only to get a heartbeat 3 minutes from the hospital. The crew from Gwinnett Fire Stations 13 and 21 did their job and now I was in the hands of the doctors, who immediately put me in a coma and chilled my body to allow the organs to recover. Through those days everyone was being told that IF I survived, I would have brain damage. I apparently had a stream of friends and family visit, then Acts 9:40 appeared to have happened:

But Peter put them all outside, and knelt down and prayed; and turning to the body he said, “Tabitha, arise.” And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up.

On May 20th, two close friends from 12 Stone Church, Amiee and Patty, stopped by to pray over me. During this time of intense prayer, I responded and started coming out of the coma. The nurses freaked, told them to stop and started to load me up on meds to keep me in the coma. Within a couple hours it didn’t matter what they did, I was out of my coma.

Now the first thing I did was freak out since the white board had “5/20/15” written on it, so I assumed I had been in a coma for a year. I had a ventilator crammed down my throat and could not communicate at all, so my flailing around was consistent with a person with brain damage. The removed the ventilator and immediately started to pepper me with questions.

The first was “if I was standing in a puddle of water and I had rubber boots on, would my feet be wet?” I though what a stupid question and asked “how deep is the puddle?” That was when Katy sighed relief things appeared normal. I still had an uphill battle, but at least things were positive. After two weeks bouncing between ICU and the cardio wing, I walked out of Emory a new man.

A couple things came from this, first is the power Jesus has given us is real. John 14:12 has Jesus telling us we will do greater things:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.”

I was covered with so much prayer that I believe that defied the odds of my survival. Amiee and Patty’s pray brought me out of the coma, no matter what the doctors wanted. I died, was brought back to a medically maintainable state of life and three days later I woke to a story of my death. I did not die for three days like Jesus, but was only “out of it” for those three days. But the power of prayer was the key I believe in my recovery. Everyone else was doing their best, but the odds were heavily stacked against me. I have only learned this more after talking with Dave Yarbrough, the lead paramedic of the team who saved me, told me multiple stories of my scenario that did not work out.

What did I take from this? First I am humbled to have been spared life by God! Why me? Why did I survive and not others who experience what happened? Second, I have modified what I eat, since that is what cause the conditions to have a failure. That modification has changed my metabolism such that I don’t need to train incessantly to keep the weight off. It’s easy to keep at a health weight and my blood numbers look significantly better! Third, I am thankful each and every day. This is no longer a “cliché” but reality since I was so close to the grave. With that I thank everyone who had a hand in my recovery, without the team from station’s 13 and 21, without the team of doctors and staff, without the covering of prayer from everyone I would not have survived. My HEART goes out to each and every one who had a part in saving me.

The First Hurdle

As things started to flow again we began to see that God did
things for a reason. 2 Peter 3:9 began to ring in my mind:

 Now the
Lord is not slow about enacting His promise—slow is how some people want to
characterize it—no, He is not slow but patient and merciful to
you, not wanting anyone to be destroyed, but wanting everyone to turn away from
following his own path and to turn toward God’s.

 

Everyone says “in God’s time” and we all use that to deal
with personal disappointments. But when you are sitting in another “deal” that
seems to be of God and you start to reflect you see God’s timing is really impeccable.
I thought back to the failed deal and realized if that had happened things
would have been a potential disaster. You may ask how is getting out of debt
and owning your building a disaster?

The first was the business, although it had saved us through
some very rough times it was not our passion. Although we liked cycling we
loved motorcycling and really had done the business more to support Devon as he
developed as a rider/skater. Once he turned pro he made it clear he did not
want to be tied to a shop. That and the economy had us close the business in
2010. If we had been “blessed” like we wanted, we would have a closed business
and the cost of maintaining a building that would have still had a hefty
mortgage. We would have been sunk again.

Also, we had been sitting on a huge debt and like before
this had been “handled” by windfalls and obviously my lesion had not be learned
since we kept getting into debt. I knew budgeting but never really too it to
heart once I embraced the concept of using other people’s money to make money.
My logic was if the money I borrowed was making 45% while only costing me 10%
and I was “turning” the inventory two or three times a year, this was wise.

As I said before in December 2008 we had $175k in credit
card debt and $400k in real estate loans with 3 rentals. The rentals were a
pain since they were falling apart and we never had full occupancy. Well after
embracing the Total Money Makeover we started chipping away debt.  We lived frugally for years and was able to
settle some of the debt along with pay down the rest. I had finally realized
that cash was king and using other people’s money could get you in deep trouble
when economies turned against you.

So that gets us to our deal that is “perfect”. Well as it is
getting close to the contact end date it is obvious that the developer is not
doing their part of the deal. We are starting to see the deal fall apart and
started to freak out. By this time we had started to liquidate properties and I
forgot to mention a month after the deal was “inked” I was laid off again.

This again was “God’s Timing” to show His plan worked. Our
real estate deals happened early into the “boom” and therefore although we were
taking a large “paper” loss, since we had been paying down the mortgage we had “equity”
and cash to survive. The first home closed a week after severance finished.
That paid off the last of the credit card debt and kept us afloat to closing of
the land deal. Which was slipping and looking less “real” each day. So while
God is patient we were not and started to freak out again.

Once again we were fighting God’s timing and getting very
restless. The carrot was being pulled from our faces once again and that was
causing unrest. You would think after 40+ years of watching God’s timing work I
would be at peace with things not going as “I” expected.

Be “still”

In the chaos of a move across the country and settling into
a new home, you might have noticed I have been off line. Psalm 46:10 stuck a
chord with me:

“Be still, and know that I am God.
    I will be exalted among the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth!”

 

As with most moves thing are chaotic and people are on edge
from the stress. Our move was across the country and required three loaded drives, two
last minute home deals, a rental and animals … and we are not done yet. So life
has consumed my “thoughts” on God to how am I going to fix this water main we
broke. I have been reading a book on Prayer and this was the subject of my
recent reading which made a huge impact on what is happening today.

What does it mean to be “still” with God? I know with everything
going on my prayers are a quick “help me” and on to the next crisis. Sitting
down and reading scripture is the last thing I really can focus on. Yet here I
am being told to “be still” or take a chill pill in God.

I can honestly say all our busy life do not allow this. We are
expected to respond in minutes with our “smart phones” in order to make sure
everything is swell. Everything that was to make our lives easier now becomes a
distraction for rest. It’s almost impossible to be “still” with God much less
on your own. I have seen it now with the urgency of getting a new phone since
our current provider does not work in our home to the point they release us
from a contract. For a week now we have been “radio silent” and the stress is
difficult.

I think of how things were when these words were written.
Clocks were basic position sensors for the sun and communication was face to
face. If you wanted to talk with someone you had to go to them, not just call.
So being “still” with God was easier. Sure you could turn off your cell and be “still”
but most cannot do that. Life’s little distractions have consumed us to the
point we have to check Facebook constantly and have “important” notifications “pushed”
to our cell phones.

I will tell you how this grand experiment works being in the
middle of nowhere, but I can say getting upset was solved by a quick walk in
the woods. I hope to learn how to “be still” and really get to know God, not
through intellectual pursuits as I have done before but rather just shutting
down and letting Him command my thoughts. Time will tell!