I’m not really sure anyone will get to read this or even want to- but I need to write it out. My name is Mike and there isn’t anything very interesting about me except … I’m dead now.
I had what most people would call a pretty good life…you know – job, marriage, kids, house – I even lived long enough to retire and loved to fish at a little pond down the road.
Then I got sick. Nothing too remarkable there, after all I was 86 the day I died. Yeah that’s right – a long life. But what’s really important was somebody I met when I was 32. His name was Josh and he was my neighbor for about ten years. And right as I lay in the hospital room after the doc told me I only had a couple days left, I started thinking about Josh.
You see Josh was a guy who believed in Jesus. He often shared with me over the years about how God had sent His own Son into the world so we could have salvation. Well you’ve probably heard the spiel before.
Well Josh wasn’t pushy and we did regular things together so I didn’t hold it against him that sometimes he talked about stuff I didn’t want to hear. Eventually when he moved away I actually kind of missed him.
But I never “came to the Lord” like he was wanting … until the last day in the hospital. My wife had just left and she was kind of teary so honestly I was glad just to rest a minute. It was so weird cause one minute I was laying there struggling a little to breathe, and then all of a sudden, I started thinking about Josh.
I could remember clear as a bell his talk about Jesus. I got to thinking … what if he was right?
I pushed my little button and a nurse came to check on me and I told her I wanted to see my pastor. Haha – I didn’t have a pastor but the hospital – they want something so we gave them our grandson’s church. It was on my little wristband and within a half hour they had called the pastor of the church and the guy came.
He was a bigger build guy with gray hair and a big smile. Name was Tim. He looked exhausted but was pretty chipper and asked me what he could do for me.
Told him I was dying. That didn’t seem to rattle him … so then I told him about Josh – asked him what he thought about the whole Jesus thing. Well you would have thought I gave this guy the moon. He told me about this Jesus as though it was his best friend … turns out they are best friends but that’s for later.
He asked me then if I was willing to accept this Jesus as my Lord and Savior … this tired, happy guy who ran to the bedside of an old man he never met. Nice guy.
Well I don’t know how to explain the rest … I just knew this Jesus was the real thing … mostly I guess cause I got a glimpse of Him through Josh and this Pastor Tim. Anyhow the rest is sort of funny if it wasn’t so serious. But I guess life can be serious and funny at the same time.
Pastor Tim was determined I should be baptized and showed me in the Bible where it told about that … but I couldn’t leave the hospital. Here is the funny part…
That guy rounded up a big old sink nearby, convinced them nurses to wheel me down there and you guessed it – I got baptized … right there in the hospital!
Good thing too … because twenty minutes later … I died.
And there He stood with a grin as big as Pastor Tim and His arms open wide. Light was everywhere and the singing … well you have to be here to believe it.
Turns out … it’s all true. Jesus, Heaven, angels … all of it.
I’m just so grateful … to Josh for telling me, to Pastor Tim for walking me through the end and to God for makin’ a way for a sinner like me to get here.
I hope this reaches you.
I hope you have a Josh.
I hope you find a Pastor Tim.
But most of all … I hope you meet Jesus face to face. Look me up when you get here …name is Mike.
**Note this fictional work is inspired by real life … and a real life Pastor Tim.