Marketing Strategy or Truth?
June 15, 2013 Leave a comment
“When people sin, they earn what sin pays—death. But God gives his people a free gift—eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23 ERV
On December 22, 2008, I was 42 then. A healthy cyclist and a distance swimmer when I had my 2nd encounter with death. The first one was in 1989 during a bike accident when a car hit me from behind. I was dragged for 9 feet holding on to the right front tire. I saw everything happened and even to this day I can still picture the actual event. I survived with only two wide scars in my buttocks and no broken bones and was not admitted to the hospital because my injuries were more like an emotional one than physical. The 2nd experience was in 2008, three days before Christmas. I got up early that morning and rode 10 miles in my indoor bike. My body was tired but I pressed on thinking that it was just a flu. I took a shower and ate breakfast and then proceed to my household chores – ironing the laundry. I was halfway in the ironing of the pile of laundry when my left arm felt numb and a pressing pain in my upper left chest close to the left shoulder persisted and did not go away even after relaxing my hand. I asked my wife Britta to give me some water but after 3 minutes, the pain was still there. I know something was wrong but I did not know what it was. With the help of a search engine, I entered the phrase “numb hand upper left chest pain”. The search engine indicated that it is a ” heart issue”. There was no urgency, I changed clothes and walk to the car as normal. As I sat down very still and calm with the front seat reclined, I was wondering if this was the end of me. Many questions crossed my mind; Did I prepare my family for my departure? Did I mentored my two kids to the best of my ability? Did I loved my wife to the fullest? Did I left enough notes at work so that my coworkers can crack the code of all the things I’ve worked on. When did I last talked to my mother? When did I last talked to all my sisters? Did I left a mark in my lifetime?
The pain was steady at threshold somewhere in 9 or 10. My breathing was fine and pulse was around 50. When we arrived at the ER, the medical team went into a full alert. After 2 hours of studies on my symptoms, they ruled out everything but a myocardial infarction – I had a full blown heart attack, my left anterior descending was 100% blocked. Some people said that I was lucky but my doctor explained to me why I survived. My collateral arteries were opened and during the interruption of blood flow, those alternate pathways sustained my heart to keep going. This is only possible when a certain individual raises their heart rate at a longer time during exercise. I biked and swim regularly.
Noticed on the questions I had earlier, I did not remember thinking about heaven or eternity. What I do recall was the thought of “I will miss this world”. I was puzzled for years why I had that thought instead of being so excited about the promise of eternal life – the streets of gold, the endless singing, the interaction with angels and the 24/7 access to the throne of God. The Bible said that there will be no more tears and no more pain.
But why would I not think of that?
The answer to that question is found in this verse – eternal life is a free gift.
When things are free, we tend to forget that it is there. Think about the air you breathe or the sunlight or the water flowing in the river. Those are priceless things and we don’t even take notice of their existence.
My point here is, why not take the free gift? You are not going to lose anything. Ok, no one really knows that those promises existed but think of it wisely, if you do not believe that heaven is real and comes the end of your life and it is real, what would you do? Now if it is real and comes your expiration on earth, all you have to do is transition to the new place, did you lose anything? No. Did you gain anything? Absolutely yes! A safe passage to the Kingdom of Heaven.
But please, don’t think of heaven like that. I mentioned in that manner because some of us here in this earth are so smart and stubborn and we want logic or science to explain everything for us before believing.
I was carefully studying scientists and their findings but the more they found molecular level truths, the more I am convinced that there must be a creator of all these things on earth.
Don’t pass on the free gift, it is indeed free and the only thing that you have to do is believe in Christ.
How simple is that. It is not a marketing strategy.
P.S. There are more benefits after you take the free gift. More on this later.
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