I am the recipient of a double lung transplant a few years ago.
Shortly after I came home from my transplant center, a fellow believer in Christ asked me if I had had an epiphany or any revelations from God during or after my surgery transplanting these lungs. I revealed that I really could not point to a specific time, and I was careful about that because I was taking so much morphine and pain control drugs the first few days, that my mind was not in full gear anyway. (I did however see a few Chinese warriors dropping from the ceiling tiles wielding little hatchets coming for me.....and once I looked at the patient next to me and I his IV pole had bags hanging from it names "potatoes" and "steak" and "cake"....hmmmm. <VBG>!
But after...a week or two later, two folks came up to visit me on a Sunday and they brought communion with them. As we shared the communion together, that is when the Holy Spirit welled up within me and cried out Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty, the whole earth is full of His Glory. That is when that I fully realized that just as a physical man had died to extend my physical life...so did Jesus die for my spiritual life and for the salvation of my eternal soul! You cannot imagine how that makes you feel knowing that a man says to you..."Here...take my lungs...or my heart...or my eyes..", yet the physical man did. I still do not know his name, but I hope to some day. So too, Jesus says to me (and to all) HERE, TAKE MY LIFE, GIVEN FOR YOU. and I do know Him....NOW!
For years, so many people all over the country had prayed for me; relatives, people in my own home congregation, people in other congregations that I have never personally met, many brothers and sisters in the Lord's church. Although I was nervous about rolling into the operating room, I was not scared for I too prayed for the surgeons and nurses as I was put under.
Having new lungs is a blessing, and it is wonderful to be able to breathe, but the operation presents a whole new set of problems and for many, it is not all peaches and cream. Some days I wonder why the good Lord let me live at all, then something will happen or He will put someone right in front of me, and I have to say I am sorry to Him for not completely trusting Him.
There is no doubt in my mind that God's hand has been guiding my life from point to point, and that is my testimony. I am not perfect and there has been times that I stray off to what is not good for me, and the Lord God allows me to do so, but He ALWAYS has provided a road back to the true path of salvation. Thank God.
dan |
