Choking

Last week was spiritual emphasis week at our school. Our speaker was a former student here at ILE. He arranged for his father's church to come during the week, do some volunteer work around the school in the daytime, and at night, during the talks, they put on a Vacation Bible School for the missionary kids.

On Friday, the VBS teachers graciously kept the kids from 5-8pm to give the parents 3 hours to have a date night. What a blessing!!! Dawn and I went out to dinner up the mountain south of the city with four other couples. It is a restaurant that specializes in steaks and pork. The meat is tasty. It also will give your masticator (jaw) muscles a great workout if you know what I mean. You just don't get tender grain fed pieces of meat in Costa Rica. Because of that, it is tempting to sometimes swallow before the bite is completely chewed. About 2/3rds of the way through the meal the lady sitting to my left suddenly tapped me on the arm in a jerky rapid manner and I suspected immediately she was choking. I asked her if she was choking and she nodded yes. She had just swallowed a piece of steak and it lodged in her throat. She was completely blocked and could not speak or breathe. We both stood up and I did the Heimlich manuver 3 times which cleared the blockage. It was quite a scary moment as I knew she had about 2-3 minutes until she would pass out and then pass away. Up on the mountain we were at least 45 minutes from any medical help.

So why am I writing about this event? It reminded me of two things. First, how fleeting life is. We all should have the attitude of "Don't waste your life." Every day can count if we take time to commune with God through prayer, Bible reading, service, witnessing, etc. Even if we get nothing accomplished by the world's standards, a day spent in prayer is a productive day by God's standards. The second reason is I was reminded of God's sovereignty. It was very fortunate that I was sitting next to her. It looked as if where we all sat was by chance but God knew where I would be needed and put me right there. I had even asked Dawn if she wanted to sit in my seat, she declined which surprised me but God knew where I needed to be.

Dear God, thank you for every day ordering our lives to put us where we need to be in order to serve you. Amen.

Published by Tully