When traveling, we stop at Friends of the Library and buy old magazines,
then donate them back. Better than the $6-10 50 page ad conceived today, and
they are a bargain at 50 cents. But I also hit up antique stores, and find
magazines to my liking, old Car and Driver’s, Poplar Mechanics and Popular
Science. A 1967 Car and Driver I bought for a buck has road test of a 1967
Z-28, Firebird 400, and a 280SL Mercedes Benz. And some interesting racing
results. But my favorites are Popular Science and Popular Mechanics, where all
sort of innovative news and ideas are presented. I found a treasure trove of
them one weekend in Paso Robles from 1946-1964, and for $15, filled my shelf,
and my saddlebags. But one issue from 1951 has caught my attention lately, from
three years prior to my birth. Seems the auto industry was experimenting with
catalytic converters, and showed how they used them in warehouses for tow
motors. How the 1951 Plymouth rode smoother because of new shocks, verified by
Wilbur Shaw, an Indy 500 winner. An article on atomic sand, that sticks to
soldiers boots and only kills the enemy when placed in enemy territory, saving
lives and the destruction of the innocent. Even a new way to make curved
windshields that would be standard on all cars later on. All the stuff we take
credit for as new, was new before I was born. Only the names and games are
changed, so much for the innocent.
But one article, one a new invention, that had been successfully tested on
dogs, caught my attention. A mechanical pump, used to circulate blood during an
open heart surgery, the grandfather of the one used on me. It detailed how the
dogs tested had been on it for up to 70 minutes and survived with no ill
effects, and how soon it would be tested on people. How a device filtered the
blood, then oxygenated it, maintaining a steady pressure, allowing the heart to
be removed from the body if needed for repairs. All mechanical and chemical, a
simple life saving machine, that I am thankful for, at least the 2012 edition.
In June of 2012, I had open heart surgery, and my aorta replaced, after it
exploded on the operating table. The machine mentioned was hooked up to me for
hours, as my heart was out of my body for 5 1/2 hours, put in perspective they
do transplants in four. And this pump that was older than me in initial design,
pumped my blood when my heart was out and being reassembled. along with being
on life support, it seems that if I had been born a few years too early, my wife
would be a widow and my kids orphans, but chalk one up for technology, which
saved my life. Technology imitating life, if only for a shot time, as Peter, my
cardiologist told me, “we can keep you functioning, we cannot necessarily keep
you alive.” And yesterday after 5 1/2 years it struck me how sick I really was,
and how far they went to save me, and how far I have come today.
God intervened in way that I would not have thought to pray, or even did.
Tough when you are in a coma. So many times we expect a big mystical miracle,
but forget God operates in a physical world, even though he is a spirit. He
uses all the tools in his tool box, not just our requests, and I am glad he
does, as so often we tell God what to do, offer advice and expertise, or hand
him a list to fill. On the list that day, he handed mine back and added a box,
the only one checked, “none of the above.” He knew how he planned to rescue me,
and who would be involved. He also knew who would be praying, and the impact of
his intervention would have on all those. He knew way back in 1951 how the
experiment would turn out, his technology is so far advanced we cannot even
imagine it. But God using physical things to heal offends some Christians, as
they only expect a divine, mystical intervention, and void God’s plans. I know
a woman who for years could have taken a medicine that would have given her a
better life, but refused it as God would heal her. Only thinking of herself,
she put her husband through decades of suffering along side her, needlessly.
When once I asked her about it, I was told I had no faith in miracles. My reply
was “if you have a headache, and never heard of aspirin, and given one your
headache went away, isn’t that a miracle to the person?” No reply, as she and
her husband suffered on needlessly. Her faith in disbelief was more than her
faith in a healing God.
Read your Bible, Jesus healed in many ways. Here’s mud in your eye once,
another time a simple touch. On time friends lowering a man through the roof,
not recommended, while a simple touch of his robe healed another, as he felt his
healing power going out from him. Yet another man had so much confidence in
Jesus, he told Jesus don’t even come to my house, such is the faith he had in
him. Each way Jesus healed was a miracle, he used all the tools at his
disposal, for the world is his. Leaving us with something to remember him by
with the healing. All the above, me included, were touched spiritually in our
healing, but Jesus gave us evidence to prove it was him. Today I am referred to
as “Miracle Mike” by my doctors, all who will tell you that I should not be
alive. Even one doctor breaking into tears when she read my records. My last
visit to Peter before being discharged, he put his arm around me, and told me
”it was the hardest surgery he ever did. And it was evident that God
intervened.” Even the medical staff and non-believers can see! And I have the
scar and the charts to prove it! I literally have been given a new heart by
Jesus!
So don’t limit God in your requests, or tell him how to do it. When you
trust, you obey. As God put it to me one night, after leaving church and the
scripture came to mind, “we walk by faith, not by sight.” Him adding, “but you
have seen me.” I wrestled with that, until getting home and turning on the TV,
where a commercial explained it all to me. Not a spiritual one, but with
spiritual applications. A father was in the pool, telling his little girl to
jump in. She kept refusing, she didn’t want to. She was scared and not
trusting, being about three. But when he raised his voice and said “JUMP!” she
did so in obedience, not in trust. Faith, obedience, then trust. As we work
out our salvation daily.....
Do we really trust God? It wasn’t my faith or obedience or even trust, it
was his grace. Through a skilled surgeon’s hands, using all the technology
available to him. Who am I to limit God, when today I can give him all the
credit for being alive? To encourage others in the same situation, to point to
Jesus and show my scar. Truly when Ecclesiastes says there is nothing new under
the sun, the only new you will find is new life in the Son. What is new to us
is old to God, can I hear an amen? Plastic aorta and all, I have truly given my
heart to Jesus, and he made me a new creature in him.
love with compassion,
Mike
matthew25biker.blogspot.com