It's All A Gift

:: [Guest post by Ian Clark] ::

According to the American Heart Association website, "approximately 95% of sudden cardiac arrest victims die before reaching the hospital."

Sometime between 12:10pm and 12:20 pm on April 14th my world was turned upside down.  During a run over my lunch hour, I went into full cardiac arrest and collapsed.  At 32 years of age I had a heart attack...at 32!  This was completely unexpected and the circumstances surrounding my survival are nothing short of miraculous.  

For starters,  I've been a runner all of my adult life and I had completed a 4.2 mile run just two days earlier.  I have never ran over the lunch hour before, but on this day, I thought I would run home during lunch.  I happened to collapse in front of someone's house who just happened to be coming home for lunch, which I'm told this person, Carlos, didn't do on a regular basis.  When he found me, I was not breathing, I had no pulse, and my flesh was blue.  Carlos called for help.  A woman named Gayla was just one block away at a park eating lunch with her husband.  When she heard Carlos yell, the two came as quickly as they could.  Gayla was an administrator and former director of nursing at the local hospital and immediately sprang into action.  Gayla began performing CPR, and ultimately saved my life.  She later told me that I had been without air for at least six to eight minutes.  Experts say brain death starts to occur four to six minutes after someone experiences cardiac arrest.  There were several others involved in my rescue including the local ambulance and hospital staff.  Everyday I learn more about these events that make my survival seem more like a miracle.

death and faith formation

One of our students tragically lost a parent last week.

In my 12+ years of doing life with college students this is the first time I've attended the funeral of a student's parent.

As we've reached out to him over the past few days, and begin to think about walking alongside him over the coming weeks, months and years; I've found myself wondering how an event of this magnitude shapes a young person during some of the most formative years of their life.

The "college years" are already filled with times of significant life transition, asking big questions, learning how to ask better questions, learning how to seek out answers, determining who we want to become, opening ourselves to who and what God might want us to become, learning how to relate to others at new levels, for new reasons, etc., etc., etc. The number of life shaping influences seem to be at a premium.

The kind of life alteration/formation/transformation that comes with the death of a loved one is one rarely experienced by the "invincible" college student... unless an untimely tragedy like this one occurs.

Every student is different... and will handle a tragedy like this differently... and so my prayer for this young man is that God will use the loss of his earthly father to bring him closer to his Heavenly Father. That many of the superficialities that college students so often get sidetracked by will fall away and this time of formation will prove to be exponential for this weary journeyer.

May God's grace and mercy be ever-present!

How do you walk alongside people who have experienced the death of a loved one?

How have you seen God work in exponential ways in the life of someone who has experienced such pain and devastation?

What advice to you have for those of us who are new to this kind of ministry?