Breaking Down Walls

If we had no winter, the whispers of spring would hold less allure. If we never tasted adversity, the blessings of God might seem mundane. fkj

How is your race going? Are you moving along, “Full speed ahead” experiencing the outpouring of God’s blessing? Most of us have experienced such wonderful and rewarding times, when the heavens seem to pour out on our every endeavor, and the fruitfulness of God’s Spirit seems to serve fruit salad each morning. Then, from an unseen avenue WHAM! It’s as though we walk headlong into a wall and the wheels fall right off our Mercedes!

In April of 2009 I hit a wall. It was in the form of a severe heart attack. I woke up at 5:30 in the morning with an intense pain in my chest, covered in sweat and a paralyzing weakness all over my body. My wife called 911 and within a few minutes two ambulances and three EMTs were hovering all around me. They did an EKG and I remember one of the EMTs saying to my wife, “This is a really bad one, are you ready for this?” That was my first indication that I had really hit the wall! “How insensitive,” I thought “doesn’t she know I can also here her?”

Ten minutes later I found myself being carted into an ambulance and being whisked through early morning traffic to Hershey Medical Center. My first thoughts in the ambulance were focused on how uncomfortable the ride was. “Shouldn’t ambulances have good suspensions?”

My thoughts were interrupted by the panic in the two EMT workers who were ministering to me. My blood pressure had crashed and they were frantically talking to the doctors at the Medical Center as to what to do. I thought, well I’m headed for a great hospital, but I’m in the hands of the Great Physician! I looked up at their panicked faces and said: “Don’t worry, I’m in good hands.” I don’t think they fully comprehended what I meant, or they were simply too busy to care.

My thoughts turned toward the Lord, and I said well You’re either going to give me a big miracle here or take me home – either way I win. Despite the intense pain in my chest, I was totally at peace. There was a flurry of activity at the hospital as doctors and nurses seemed to be doing ten things at once (which they probably were). I recall signing some forms, thinking “That doesn’t even look like my signature.” And that was that.

The next thing I remember was waking up in the cardiac intensive care unit and seeing the faces of my family and some of my church family huddled around me. “No pain,” I thought, “that’s a good sign.” The doctors prognosis was that I had suffered a severe heart attack in the worst possible place. My Left Anterior Descending Artery was 100% blocked. Of heart attacks in the United States about 25% are fatal… of this kind of heart attack I was told 90% are fatal.

The doctor who put the coronary stent in my artery told me she was amazed that I had survived the procedure and that I would be a long time recovering from such a severe attack. “Attack,” I thought, “you’re right this is an attack of the enemy.”

Throughout that day I had the strangest sensation. There was a feeling, a discernible warmth all around me. I could feel the prayers of the saints surrounding me. I know that it was a spiritual thing, but I actually felt as though I could feel it. I would sleep and awake and fall back to sleep. But each time I awoke I could feel the love, and the warfare of my family and friends in intercession.

The next morning I felt remarkably better (considering they poked and prodded me most of the night with blood tests, blood pressure and a sundry of other things). My mid-day they transferred me to the step-down cardiac care unit. I asked my nurse if I was allowed to get out of bed and walk. She was amazed that I would even want to try to walk. That evening I was walking around the cardiac unit with my wife.

The next morning I was up walking the halls by myself when my attending physician came walking into the unit. She looked at me in amazement, saying she thought it would take me weeks to get out of bed. The following day when the physicians made their rounds she came into my room and said, “I don’t believe I’m saying this but you can go home tomorrow.”

So in a matter of days I received two miracles from the Lord. First He kept me alive defying all the odds. Secondly He allowed a miraculous healing process. While I was in the hospital I had the opportunity to minister to two men who had survived similar heart attacks. Each of them had been in the hospital for three months recovering. I left the hospital on the fourth day! What a marvelous Savior we serve!! At the writing of this article I am in my second week of cardiovascular physical therapy and feeling stronger each day.

Everyone experiences walls in life’s journey. Your wall may an illness, or a problem at work, a school project that seems overbearing, a family relationship problem or any number of other issues. No matter what the issue walls all have one common denominator: they stop you cold, and give you great pause to reflect on life.

The big question is this, when you hit your wall how will you respond.

Your response will most likely be in direct proportion to your relationship with the Lord. Not that these times are easy, to be sure. They are tough, but we must push through them by relying on our personal relationship with the Lord. He is the only one who can bring peace to the storms of life. When you are feeling like all is lost, when failure is circling all about you it is time to press in, to go boldly to the throne of grace and mercy. It is the time to place your reliance on the Word rather than your circumstance.

This is all part of our responsibility in running the race for Christ Jesus:

“Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified."
1 Corinthians 9:24-27 NASB

The more we press into the presence of the Lord the quicker we will put a crack in the wall that was designed by the enemy to drive us away from Him. The forces of God will come bursting through the wall because God is Love! These walls are truly opportunities to build our faith and the character of God in us!

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