Another Sunny Day in Californi-eh…

Sorry for not updating this in such a long time guys. But let us begin…

September 19, 2009, was the day I remembered why I was afraid of heights.  It was another sunny day in California, and some friends and I decided that it was time for a little male bonding time.  So we did the most logical manly thing we could think of…drove into the mountains and found some cliffs to jump off of and plummet into semi-deep freezing water below.  Feel the testosterone.

It was all good and fun diving off the little 10 and 20 footers, but, knowing that we had not yet proved our manliness till we had leapt from the tallest one there, we soon decided we should wait no longer.  So the first of my friends (in a professional wetsuit, might I add) took the plunge.  And survived, intact! Then a second friend did it and also didn’t cause major bodily harm to himself.  I deduced that with a 2/2 survival rate, the odds seemed good that I too could arise unscathed from the waters below.

It’s a strange feeling, falling 45 feet.  You actually have time to think.  I believe on my way down I was pondering physics equations about velocity, acceleration and force of impact.  I may have even recalled Physics class – Lynsey texting, Troy sleeping, and Allison and I spazzing over the phone about how triangles are stupid…

I know you’re probably wondering, “Who still thinks about high school Physics class?”  Apologies.  I shall continue.

So.  Man hits water.  Man disappears.  Man emerges.  Man swims to shore and sits on a rock, then proceeds to cough up a bit of blood.  Apparently I hit the water at somewhat of an odd angle.  Not quite a belly flop, but enough to cause a few side effects.  Throughout the next few days my heart rate increased at random times and I felt sharp pains when doing certain movements, causing me to feel somewhat shameful, scared, and definitely not manly.

I really hope the turning point of this story is worth it, cuz I don’t think I told mum the part about coughing up blood (sorry mum).  So here goes…It was a week later, and I hadn’t told hardly anyone about my symptoms.  We were hanging out at someone’s house, and this guy named Ben from Australia was praying for me.  Suddenly he put his hand on my heart and said, “I just feel healing.  Do you have heart problems, mate?”

Pause.  Just half an hour before, I had been at a different apartment, talking to Hendrikka (one of my cool Icelandic friends) about how the heart problems were troubling me.  It had been on my mind all week, really.

So I tell him the story, and then Ben prays for healing of my heart.  As if this wasn’t crazy enough, as he takes his hand off my chest, he says, “Do you still feel that?  Like a hand on you?”  Even though there was no hand there, I did feel something still.  Hard to describe…but I didn’t feel pain anymore.  It was actually kinda like when your foot falls asleep, except for this was my chest.  I mean it didn’t actually fall asleep (who knows what sort of breathing problems I would have had then) but that’s as close as what I can describe it as.

I wrote in my journal that night, “And even now, I press between my ribs to my heart, and I feel no pain!  I take deep breaths!  My heart rate doesn’t race!  I still feel sore in my neck, sinuses and jaw, but that’s a different thing.  Have I just witnessed my first real miracle?  I mean it seems a small thing, and to God it is, but like seriously, the implications of this??”

I wonder what you’re thinking.  Was this some sort of coincidence?  Am I exaggerating?  Did I lose a few fruit loops the past two years?   Or maybe this is the type of story you’ve heard many times, and you’re like, “that was actually pretty tame, Nathan.  I have ten better stories to top that one.”  Well fine, you should send them to me.  But part of the reason I wanted to share this is because it was one of my first real experiences with the things that I have been pondering and wondering about for the past 5 years.  This is a tiny example of a bigger reality, a grander scheme of things than perhaps we have seen.  This is what I want to share with you about in the next post.  I would write more now, but I realize that long posts can be really annoying, and it can be difficult to motivate yourself to make it past the first paragraph…

But stick with me.  I’m pretty excited about it.  I’m sorry I haven’t updated this more – apparently it’s a bigger job than I thought trying to start up a blog.  I’m about to head back to Pennsylvania which will take some time, then San Jose after that, but hope to keep you guys more into this. I’m trying hard to be sure I’m writing stuff that’s actually worth reading.  Within the next few days I shall follow up this story with some bigger realities that I’ve been realizing about  life, and we’ll see where things go from there.  Love you guys, thanks for reading.  Live it real.