This week, we are sharing the story of a dear friend, a prayer warrior and a faithful supporter of our ministry, Dr KC from Singapore. This is what he writes:
“I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,” (Ephesians 1:18)
It is a surreal experience – watching my own heart beating continuously on the real-time X-ray monitor. I was fully alert during the procedure to dislodge the clot in the blood vessel surrounding my heart (angioplasty) following my acute, unexpected heart attack that morning. “If there is a complication during the procedure and my heart is suddenly to beat irregularly or stop altogether, I would have just about several seconds before I black out totally,” I thought to myself.
Having been a doctor for more than 30 years, I recall seeing some patients die, while suffering painfully in intensive care, despite maximum medical therapy. “This wouldn’t be a bad way to go…” I reminded myself, while watching my angioplasty proceeding before me, and my fellow-doctors trying their best to keep calm themselves, while checking regularly if I am still alright. More than their placid reassurance, I wished someone close to me was holding my hand while I am fully conscious of the goings-on. I tried to distract myself by recalling memorized scripture. Romans chapter 8, my favourite… O am I glad I reviewed it recently so I could recall the exact words…”
For I am convinced that neither death nor life….will be able to separate us from the love of God that is Christ Jesus our Lord.” OUR Lord! I was reminded while lying there in the cold procedure room that Paul had not written these words about or for himself. He meant it for all believers of Christ. So this applies to me too…I could trust in Him all through the angioplasty and if I were to black out, I wanted Jesus to be my last thought and, wistfully, the first One I see, should that be the last moment of my time on this earth. It is even better than having someone close to me, holding my hand in that room – to feel the love of Christ, literally in my heart.
How marvellous is His love - that while having emergency angioplasty for heart attack, I could, like the venerable John Wesley, feel my heart “strangely warmed” by God’s faithful promises in scripture.