On Sunday, June 11, I woke up around 3:00 in the morning with my heart beating very fast and what seemed to be very erratically as well. I got up, moved around, got a drink of water and decided to take some aspirin before I finally called 911 to get someone to help me. The ambulance crew arrived, hooked up an EKG to evaluate my heart and they determined that it was in AFib. An IV was established and they administered medication that was to encourage my heart to return to a normal rhythm. The only real result was that my blood pressure dropped too much.

I was taken to the hospital where they tried three different medications but my heart was not responding as it should. Finally, it was determined that a shock to my heart was necessary. Thankfully, only one shock returned my heart to its normal rhythm. I was tired for several days but my heart has been behaving pretty well since that event. More tests are pending to help decide if any further action or medication change is needed. I believe that there are at least two lessons that could be gleaned from this experience.

First, a few days later as I was sharing a prayer request concerning this event with a few friends I pray with several times a month, one gal interrupted by saying, “Helen, I need to tell you something. On that Sunday morning I was awake around 3:00 and could not go back to sleep. Very soon, I felt a strong impression that you needed prayer so that’s what I did even though I didn’t know why. Now I do and I’m so glad that I listened and responded to the call to pray. Isn’t God amazing?”

I was immediately overwhelmed by this evidence that God knew that something was happening in my body that was not right and He woke this friend and quietly put it in her mind to pray for me. Could God have cared for me without her prayers? Of course, but since He desires to be intimately involved in each of our lives individually and corporately, He involved others. I was blessed by knowing that God knew my need and prompted someone else to pray. She was blessed by knowing that God had called her to intercede for me. Let’s not ever think that our prayers are unimportant as they bless us and even others. God used a tangible event to prove, as He did at least one other time in my life, that He’s got our back! Having a God like that, who knows everything, is something to brag about!

Second, I began thinking about the episode itself. When several gentle approaches of IV and other medications to get my heart into a regular rhythm were not working, a shock was necessary. Perhaps when God wants to rid us of our sins of poor choices and actions, bad language and hostile attitudes that are not pleasing to Him, He may try a gentle approach to encourage us to change. He may even use several gentle ways to shake us from our complacency. If we won’t respond as needed however, He might have to resort to more intense, perhaps shocking, ways to get our attention and set us on a better path.

Even if God seems silent, He is listening. Even if we don’t hear His voice, He is busily engaged in our lives. Even if we don’t feel His presence, He is near and He is never forgetful!

“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has born? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me,” (Isaiah 49:15-16 NIV).

Helen’s first book, “Ordinary Life, Extraordinary God” which contains about 1/3 of the devotionals written for The Minot Daily News over many years is available online or by contacting her at jesusisthereason01@gmail.com.