(The following article was first published on June 12, 1995)

Few people other than God and those faithful ministers who walk with Him realize the intense burdens a Gospel minister often bears. Under the unrelenting strain of spiritual battle, the minister must with constant vigilance guard against a fatigue that affects the acuity of his spiritual vision. Without extreme care such a man, with the best of intentions, will lose sight of the joys and responsibilities of eternity, and lapse into a myopic and mundane trance fixed on time alone.

Regretfully I must confess that in the past months I, as a Gospel minister, found myself focused more on the temporal than the eternal.

Sensing that problem, on May 3, I prayed a very simple prayer to God: “Lord, I feel like I’m caught up too much with time. Help me to see the value of eternity in relation to time—like you see it.”

Within 24 hours of that prayer and with no prior evidence of any serious health problems, I had a heart attack.

Our family had planned a long trip to my mother-in-law’s house for Thursday afternoon. Knowing the church lawn needed mowing before Sunday, I decided to do it late that morning.

As I left the house to work on the churchyard, I did something I had never done before. I removed two dollars and my driver’s license from my wallet, placed the money and license in my pants pocket, and laid the wallet aside. For some strange reason I was thinking: “If something were to happen to me while cutting grass and I had to be put in an ambulance, it wouldn’t be good to have money and credit cards on me.”

At the church I quickly cut the grass and watered the flowers. After putting up the lawn mower, I began to roll up a 100 ft. garden hose. As I lifted the hose to put it into the trunk of the car, I felt a pain in my back similar to a muscle spasm. I have had vertebra problems for years in that area and so at first I didn’t think much of it. There was a difference, however. I couldn’t move into any position and relieve the pain.

Moments later I sensed that something strange and serious was taking place. I thought, “I’ve got to get home quickly!” During the three mile drive, the pain increased and began to come through to my chest. I wasn’t sure I could continue.

Finally arriving home I ran inside, fell across the bed, and yelled for Peggy to call 911. By this time I was in excruciating pain. I thought the ambulance would never arrive. I asked Peggy and Lisa, our 15-year-old daughter, to pray for me. They did. Then I turned to Peggy and said, “I don’t know if I’m going to make it.” For the first time the reality of what was happening became clear. I was having a heart attack.

Soon arriving the EMT’s loaded me into the ambulance and began to examine me. Within a few minutes they had me in the emergency room where doctors and nurses began to work all around me. Strange as it seems the doctors could not say definitely that I was having a heart attack. The symptoms were not classic, therefore I was not given a powerful clot-buster drug which prevents heart damage when administered during the early stages of an attack.

Several hours later I was admitted to ICU and before morning I was transferred to CCU. As further test results began to come in, doctors diagnosed a heart attack.

On Saturday my cardiologist informed me that I would need heart catherization early Monday morning. During the test he found trouble with only one artery, but it was 99% blocked. There was damage, he said, to the front of the heart.

A few hours following the catherization I found myself in another ambulance headed to Crawford W. Long Hospital in Atlanta. My cardiologist had explained, “Doctors there will perform a PET Scan to see if the heart tissue is viable. If it is you will need angioplasty to open the artery, or open heart surgery to bypass it.”

The PET Scan was done a week to the day from my heart attack. Doctors concluded that sufficient heart tissue was alive to warrant angioplasty. It was scheduled for Friday afternoon.

For days I had been telling my wife, “Peggy, if the Lord can open the Red Sea, He can certainly open a clogged artery.”

Less than an hour before the scheduled procedure, a good friend, Pastor Terry Worthan, visited me. He, my wife, and I walked the hospital halls talking about the power of God to perform miracles. I committed the matter to our Lord.

Trusting God, yet nervous, I lay immovably on the angioplasty table as two heart surgeons opened the artery in my groin and began their work. I could see what they were doing on video monitors, but I preferred not to look! For 40-45 minutes the physicians searched for the blockage. They called in the photos taken from the heart catherization in Gainesville. “There it is (on the Gainesville test photos),” pointed out one physician, “but it’s not there anymore (on our monitors).”

Believe me, I was getting excited!

In a few minutes the chief heart doctor walked to the head of the table and said, “I don’t know if we can label this as a true miracle, but it sure is good luck. The blockage is gone and we aren’t going to do anything.”

Not believing in luck and hardly able to contain my emotions, I exclaimed, “Well, praise the Lord!”

Back in my room within a few minutes and with instructions not to lift my head nor move my leg for 6 to 8 hours, I asked Peggy to wait a moment before letting anyone enter. “I’m too emotional right now and I’m not supposed to move,” I said.

As surely as our Lord had opened the sea for Israel, He had opened an artery for me!

Counseling me prior to dismissing me from the hospital, the heart surgeon said, “We can’t explain why you had a heart attack. Neither can we explain why the blockage is gone.”

God does not perform miracles for the sake of performing miracles. He is a God of wisdom and purpose. Before Israel ever arrived at the Red Sea, God had purposed to part the waters. Before I went into the hospital in Atlanta, our Lord had purposed to remove the blockage from my heart without the means of angioplasty or surgery. Before I prayed on May 3 that the Lord would help me have a clearer view of eternity, he had purposed my heart attack!

Why would God do these things? The answer is at least twofold.

First, the Lord taught me that He still answers prayer—the simplest of prayers when asked in Christ’s name and according to His will.

Second, the Lord taught me experientially what He had taught me doctrinally, that I am nothing and Christ Jesus is everything. Suffering the heart attack and not knowing if the next breath would be my last, I stood at the brink of eternity. Examining my life at that point, I could find no hope in any innate goodness or good works I had done for the Lord. My only consolation of heart and hope for heaven—and what a glorious consolation it was—was the sovereign grace and mercy of a Holy and Mighty God manifested in the person and work of His Son and my Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. I needed a clearer view of eternity. I saw eternity. But more than that, I saw clearly the glory of the God of Eternity!

When you face the end of this earthly sojourn—and your time is surely coming—where will you find hope for your soul? Neither good works, keen intellect, nor religious affections will be sufficient in that day. You must without reservation surrender completely to and trust in Christ Jesus the Lord for the salvation of your soul. Without seeing the glory of Christ Jesus in this life, you will never to the comfort of your soul see it in the next!

May the God of all mercy grant to each of you a clear and fresh view of the glory of His Son.

“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” — Revelation 4:11