My Story: Good News After a Rough Start

I faced serious questions about my mortality at the ripe old age of 15 years old. That’s right, I confronted a significant possibility of death far younger than most of the human beings who’ve ever walked the planet, and I’m glad I did. Wait, did I just say I was glad about that?

It was a dark time. I was born with a heart disease called Wolf-Parkinson-White Syndrome. In fact, I popped out of the birth canal in the throes of a heart beating so fast that instruments couldn’t pick it up.

It may wildly oversimplify it when I say this, so forgive me. The human heart receives an impulse from the brain to beat. The nerve impulse from the brain travels in a complete circuit through the heart and counts as one beat for every rotation.

The human heart is truly a complex piece of equipment, isn't it?

My nerve pathway in my heart had a defect in it that allowed the nerve impulse to short-circuit, resulting in arrhythmia, or very irregular beat patterns. It was controllable through meds in my single digits and early teens, but something changed as a teenager.

During my spells of irregular heartbeat starting at around 12 years old, the top half of the heart would measure around 250 beats per minute, and the bottom half would be around 550. It’s an understatement, but that’s not sustainable. My life was suddenly on a very short leash, and that was very hard for a pre-teen to deal with.

That’s a blood clot waiting to happen, and when one of those travels through your circulatory system and winds up in your brain, you’re done. You drop dead. Do not pass go and don’t collect $200.

Well, that forced me into asking questions about what happens when the old brain quits working, and the heart stops beating. You die. But what happens then? I’ve never been one who was comfortable just “winging it.” I’m not one to just “see what happens.”

Have you ever really considered the fact that you are going to have to confront the same question? Whether you are young, old, or somewhere in between, you have to face the fact that you will die. What happens then?

Well, if you were on your way to a place you don’t want to be for the rest of eternity in the next life, and I could help you avoid that, wouldn’t you want me to? I don’t know if anyone has ever really told you about the Good News, but give me a chance to explain it to you. All I ask is for a few minutes of your time.

Sin is an ugly, three-letter word that no one likes to talk about. Unfortunately, sin separates you from the God who made the universe. Romans 3:23 says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” We were intended to be perfect, but the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden infected every generation of human beings since then. Don’t believe me? Read the headlines. This is a sin-sick world.

I’m a sinner. Oh man, I could write you a book that would make my mom faint, my pastor blush, and Gramma Margaret come back to life on Earth and whoop the tar out of me. So are you. We all are. Sin is sin. Romans 6:23 said, “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ the Lord.” That death is spiritual death, as in an eternity in hell, a place of never-ending punishment.

Here’s the thing. Culture likes to talk about God as loving and merciful, which He is. But he’s also Holy and Just. God does not sin, and He doesn’t allow it in His presence. Sin must be punished. But this is the kicker: Because God IS merciful and loving, He took the punishment for us! He took it for you and me!

Jesus Christ came to Earth and died on the Cross, becoming sin for all of us, taking the wrath of God for every sin man has committed and will commit in the future. He volunteered to die in the most horrible way known in ancient times so that we could be with God in Heaven for eternity

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Sin separates us from God, but the Cross makes a way where there wasn't one before. He took our punishment for us!

As you can see in the picture, the Cross filled the separation between God and us that was caused by sin. All it takes is faith in what Jesus did and the belief that He did it in your place. Romans 10:9 says, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart (not just your head) that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

You WILL be saved. Not, you might be saved, depending on what you do for the rest of your life. Not, you’ll be saved if you’re better than your neighbor down the street. If you believe and confess, you will be saved from your sins.

Given everything going on in the world today, isn’t that the kind of certainty we’re all looking for? Wouldn’t you want me to tell you that?

You can have peace with God. You can go through life with Jesus as your Shepherd, leading the way. You can have the counsel of the Holy Spirit to help you live the way God wants you to.

Doesn’t peace sound like a wonderful thing? If it does, pray a prayer like this:

“Dear God, I come before you to confess I am a sinner. I continually fall short of the standard you set. I believe that Jesus came to Earth to save sinners like me. I ask you into my heart to become Lord of my life. I give my life to you and thank you for the work on the Cross that saved me from sin and gave me an eternal home with you. In your name, Amen.”

If you prayed that prayer, welcome to the family of God!

Not a real pic from my heart surgery. But this is probably a lot of what it looked like. Imagine being a parent and wondering if your kid was coming out of it alive.

By the way: Don’t tell me God isn’t real. I’m still here. June 3, 1986, was a day I still remember. My heart was surgically repaired at the University of Minnesota Hospital. It was a brand-new procedure. Mine worked. The kid I shared the hospital room with had the same thing. His surgery didn’t work. God rest his soul. If I remember right, his name was Tom.

I got to live long enough to be a parent and grandparent. Is there anything better than that? It wasn’t going to happen for me without the direct interference from Heaven itself! Hallelujah.

Thank you for letting me share my story and the Good News. If you prayed that prayer, let’s talk about next steps at chadsmithdad@gmail.com.