A Change of Heart

WOW...It's been 3 years already!  May 3, 2011, I woke up shortly after midnight with this uncomfortable pain in my chest.  I tried everything I could think of to ease the pain, but nothing worked.  I woke up my wife and talked with her about it. Then I did probably the dumbest thing...I tried to go back to sleep.

Later that morning, our daughters woke up and we continued with our regular morning routine as we got them ready for school with the pain still in my chest. When my wife got home from taking our daughters to school she asked me if I wanted to go to the emergency room.  I'm not big on going to the doctor (they always seem to find something wrong with you - go figure!), but I was starting to get scared, so I said "yes".

After blood work and a heart exam we found out I had had a heart attack and was in need of heart surgery - 5 bypasses to be exact.  So the surgery was scheduled for and completed on May 9, 2011.  After the surgery I had a lot of time to think and reflect on life...this is what I learned:

• You never know when your time is up on this earth, so you should make each second count.  Each second with your family.  Each second with friends. Most importantly, each second loving Jesus!  I realized I had been living out of my faith instead of living my faith out.
• God is faithful and delivers His peace when needed.  I remember lying on the bed just before they took me back for surgery and not feeling nervous or scared, but I felt surrounded by an indescribable peace.
• God still has work for me to do.  God is constantly performing "heart surgery" on me so I can and will live like Jesus.  The Bible tells me that He has huge plans for me and my life - plans that involve me and the spreading of His Kingdom.
• Also, I learned that it hurts to sneeze after heart surgery...badly!

Needless to say, that at the age of 38 I never expected to have a heart attack, but because I did someone was able to repair my heart both physically and spiritually. Now, every morning when I get dress and see the scar on my chest, I am reminded of the life I once lived and the greater life I'm called to live out.Sometimes we have to go through difficult and painful seasons to strengthen and repair our hearts so we can truly live. 

"Invalid Entry"

Every weekday morning (okay -  almost every), I head to the gym to do a little of that crazy thing called exercise.  Today was no different.  I woke up, ate breakfast, took my daughters to school and then headed to the gym.  Parked in my usual spot.  Walked into the gym and proceeded to scan my card.  Here's where it gets a bit interesting - the display on the card reader was reading "invalid card".  Thinking the scanner misread my card I scanned it again and I got the same response from the card reader.  A few thoughts started to pop into my head, "did I pay my membership?", "have I been kicked out of the gym?", and the ever popular "3rd time's a charm - scan it again!" - so I did.  Same response - "invalid card"!  Then I noticed the reason...I was scanning a supermarket key tag instead of my gym key tag...oops!

This little lesson this morning reminded me that we can be doing all the right things and not getting the results we expect because we're using the wrong tools.  So often in ministry we fight hard to build a ministry or even a great program so students will want to come to our church and/or programs.  Once they're there we'll talk to them about what God has done and how awesome Jesus is - hoping they come back.  

That's totally different to the way Jesus did ministry.  Jesus went to the people and talked with them not to them.  When He met with people, He helped them experience the love and grace of God.  John 1:14 says, "The Word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood." (The Message) NOT "The Word became flesh and waited for everyone to come see Him". If we put our energies into "us going" instead of "them coming" we just might get the opportunity to show more students the love of Jesus.

• Maybe during the weekend take a cooler full of ice and water and some of your youth group to the park to give water to the kids playing basketball.
• Head to the high school with a few pizzas and invite students to join you for lunch

Doing little things like this show them that you are willing to "move into their neighborhoods" and live life with them.  You never know what a simple act of love will do to someone - they just may meet that Jesus you keep talking about!