Clinically Dead For 1.5 to 2 Minutes

24 hours after I had my sudden cardiac arrest and was without a heartbeat or pulse for 1.5 to 2 minutes, clinically dead as the medical community calls it, or sudden cardiac death.

I was resting in the cardiac intensive care unit waiting for Vickie to come and visit me. I had asked her to visit the paramedic, Ray Wiegand who had worked feverishly and using every bit of his training to bring me back to life 24 hours earlier at the fire station.

Less than 1% survive such an event and yet my life had been spared, against powerball type odds.

To fully understand the scope of what had happened to me, statistically speaking, 9 out of every 10 people that suffer a sudden cardiac arrest outside of a hospital will die.

I was in a very weakened state and had an temporary inflatable heart pump that they had installed to help take the stress off of my heart helping my heart to beat ...they would remove that pump once I was in the clear.

Here is the thing.

Mentally I could not go there with what they were telling me had happened to me.

I just would not go there in my mind and accept it.

Just because you tell me something happened doesn't mean I take your word for it.

So I asked Vickie to go and speak to the man himself, Ray Wiegand, whose heroics 24 hours earlier had spared my life.

He would know for sure and have the correct answer that I was seeking... did I really just die 24 hours earlier is this thing being overblown by the Doctors?

So Vickie Bradley finally called me that afternoon and proceeded to tell me the story of everything it took to find Ray.

She told me and I had to stop her and ask her one question that I wanted her to ask him .

Did I really die?

"Yes, Sweetheart you really did die, you flat lined for over 2 minutes" was her soft response.

What happened next was something I will NEVER forgot and one of the most profound experiences I have EVER experienced in my lifetime.

I realized at this precise moment that Vickie told me this, how BIG my God was and how little I was in the situation.

I started weeping DEEPLY, I was so overcome with gratitude and could hardly speak.

This moment was so powerful all I could say was "I have to go" softly to Vickie.."I have to go, I have to go"

Vickie, bless her heart was concerned I was having another cardiac event, when I told her "No, it's just me and the Lord"

I hung up and just sat in that bed praising my God for sparing my life.

I was so aware in that moment of the MIRACLE that had happened to me that I was in denial of.

It was one of the most POWERFUL moments of my life.

It was me and my GOD in that cardiac intensive care unit.

GODS presence is real folks and if you ever experience it, you will not be able to do anything but worship him in that moment.

No pride.

No ego.

You really are profoundly aware of how BIG he really is and how small you are in the equation.

When GOD almighty visits you, you can hardly speak...just an overwhelming AWARENESS of WHO he is, who he REALLY is.

It is a good thing I was laying down because there is NO WAY anyone could ever stand in his presence.

It is a HOLY presence where all you could do is worship him and know that he is...I better understand the verse that says every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that he is LORD because there is no way, you could ever stand in his presence.

We live in an hour and a time where people have SERIOUS problems and challenges in their life.

Very serious things.

But I want to encourage you of this one thing.

Don't make your problems BIGGER than your God.

Make your GOD BIGGER than your problems.

GOD was as real to me in that moment than at any other point in my life.

If God can breath life into my dead body after 2 minutes, he can do a miracle for you.

It's not too late.

Your situation is not hopeless.

A doctor does NOT have the final say, a lawyer does NOT have the final say.

No matter how dark the night becomes for you, or how "hopeless" you may think your situation is, don't you dare give up on your GOD!

GOD is still GOD and He has the final say.

It doesn't get any more hopeless than laying up in a ambulance without a heartbeat or pulse for 1.5 to 2 minutes, but if God did it for me, he can do it for you.

STOP making your problem BIGGER than your God!

I also want you to know that GOD uses people today to perform his miracles today.

God used Ray Wiegand, the paramedic who worked so hard to spare my life that morning.

STOP magnifying your problems and go out today and be someone's MIRACLE.

A simple word of encouragement, an act of kindness.

You just never know.

What I do know is that even that even thou this happened in 2012, I still cannot watch a TV show that has a similar scene to what I experienced in it.

I have to walk away.

The other thing that i have an awareness of is that GOD never puts anyone on my radar screen by accident.

If you are placed on my radar screen I can assure as sure as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, it is by divine appointment.

There are no coincidences with God.

None.

If you reading this, it's not by accident.

*This picture was taken 3 months after I was released from he hospital, Ray was awarded the Phoenix award for a verified action of saving someones life in the line of Duty, and his Chief, asked if I was up to presenting it to him.

It was an honor of a lifetime.