And I Am Still Breathing...

Taste and see that the Lord is good.
    Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!

Psalm 34:8 

The year was 2005, I had been experiencing some rather odd sensations in that my left arm would tingle when I exerted myself.  I ignored it figuring it was nothing more than a minor annoyance.  My bride and I moved into the house in which we reside now and during the moving process, the tingling turned to pain every so often.  Once we had everything in place, we decided to start walking, partly for exercise and together time but also so we could get to know our neighborhood. It was during one of these walks that my left arm stopped tingling and simply went numb.

Coincidentally, I had my annual physical the following week.  I described my symptoms to my doctor, who decided that further investigation was needed so he put me on a treadmill for this thing called a "stress test."  Let me tell you, the stress I was enduring at work during this time did NOT need testing, it was real and it was horrible.  Each day, I forced myself to go to work and could not wait to get home.  Sleep was elusive and I became grouchy (ok, grouchier) and then there were the digestive issues that came with the stress.

It was during the stress test that I heard the doctor say, "Hmmm. You're not going home." And I was driven to the hospital for a heart cath.  Now, laying on the skinny metal table with dye being injected into my arteries, two things I struggled with: 1) Not falling off that REALLY skinny table and 2) Hearing the Cardiologist viewing the monitors say, "Hmmmm."   Jump to the night before quadruple bypass surgery (at age 45), and when I was in my room in the dark praying, I honestly did not expect to come out of surgery at all.  But it was in that silence that I felt a calm come over me like I had not felt in a LONG time and I knew, whatever happened, God had everything under control.

Even when we are enduring the worst times of our lives, God reminds us that He's already brought us through every single one we've endured before.  You'd think we'd learn to rely on Him after all that, but we still struggle with that, yet God is still there to remind us that He has everything under control!