I Can See It From Here!

There is an old expression that when people are in a small town in the middle of nowhere,"It's not the end of the earth, but I can see it from here.

As many of you know, I had a heart incidence this week. I spent my fun day doing my usual stuff. I went to 8 o'clock service at the Rock. I look forward to this service more and more every week. I then came back over the Bridge to Coronado to the Firehouse for some breakfast and some football with my friends. The Chargers played the second game, so I watched two NFL games. One beer only, for those of you who are counting. I went home about four. and laid down and watched part of the SNF game and a couple of other shows and surfing around. At about 10:15 I took my pills and went to bed. I began to feel something's a little off in my chest. When you have had heart disease as long as I have, you know and listen to your body. I still didn't think too much of it, but something was going on, and I kind of sat up on one elbow. That's when it hit me. BLAM!, It was like a shot and someone hitting my chest with a 2x4. It was like a bolt of lighting. It all most seemed like it was outside.  For a nano second I said, "What the h??? wa.... I realized my defribilulater had fired. I'd never felt anything like it. I had asked my doctor once what happens after the first shock, just wait for the second? I wondered how my feelings might be if I got the first shot. It was just that. Wait to see if there is another fire in the hole. In about 10 or so minutes BANG! There it was. The doctor once told me, if you have one shot, it may have been just a miss fire, but if you get the second, go to the ER.

Like an idiot, I dressed and drove myself to the hospital. Probably stupid, no not probably, was stupid. I think it was not wanting to draw the attention of my neighbors because in Coronado you get not only the ambulance, but the hook and ladder sirens blaring, shaking the earth.

I walked into the ER. They attached the usual attachments BAM! Number Three. I noticed the RNs watch the monitor. They would watch and then look at me because they knew what was about to happen. BAM! Number Four. That was a dozy. They finally took control of my heart through medications.

I was admitted. I was hoping to be released next day, but they wanted to keep me one more night.

After I realized what the initial firing was, I had to ask my self, "is this it?"

Ever since Mark and Jeff's deaths, and reading a couple of books on near death experiences giving us a glimpse of heaven, I wondered at that God selected minute, before you see the light, what would the the near near death experience would be like. I had that thought, as I contemplated if this was my moment of transition. I wasn't at the gates of heaven, but I could see them from here.

I lived to see another day, but I was close to seeing what that moment would be like.

What I read in those moments: Ecclesiastes Chapter 3 and Psalms 23.

I am the most blessed man on earth. I believe in God and Heaven. None of us are getting out of this thing alive.  I continue to ask myself, why have I been so blessed? What does God want me to do? For sure I thank him everyday for the blessings he has bestowed on this kid from Indiana.

Have a great day, and I am on my way home to live another day of my extraordinary life.

Sam