Yesterday I walked upstairs in our church after teaching my class and saw a Guerny at the front door. At the top of the next stairs, on the landing in the foyer, a wall of people stood facing the door. Behind them, I could see someone on the floor with a half-dozen paramedics around him. A person in the 'wall' told me Chuck had collapsed a few minutes before.
I could see people in the sanctuary so joined them. Not one person looked up; everyone was praying.
Later we were told that Chuck had a severe heart attack. As God would have it, a paramedic was visiting our service from out of town that morning. The ambulance arrived quickly, within 5-10 minutes. Chuck was not breathing but they used CPR. By the time he was taken to the hospital, he was breathing on his own, but the heart attack was ongoing. At the hospital, powerful anticoagulants broke up the clot that was causing the attack. They put him on a respirator. This morning, he is awake and responsive but not talking. Life for Chuck and his wife changed in seconds.
Someone pointed out that Chuck was in the Congo last year. What if that had happened in a remote African village? Another said that it could not have happened in a better place; we live in what a city that is said to have the best heart doctors in Canada, maybe North America. All this is good, and our hope is that he recovers.
I think of that Bible verse that says, "In Him we live and move and have our being." This traumatic event is a huge reminder of how fragile life is, and how we depend on God for every moment. Our lives, Chuck's life, is in His hands.
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