I recently finished reading 90 Minutes in Heaven: A True Story of Death & Life
Much of what I share herein is based on my own personal experiences, rather than on material from the book. But, the book made me recall the experiences, and helped put some of them in perspective.
Note that Reverend Piper does not spend a lot of time talking about his near-death experience (or post-death experience): he describes it, but he spends most of the book talking about his recovery and what he learned. Similarly, I will not talk much herein about heaven or near-death experiences (NDEs), although I will start with some brief remarks about this subject.
Near-Death Experiences
Don often refers to his desire to “return to heaven.” He noted that he could never understand why he was brought back, and that he longs for the day he returns.
I have read a lot on the subject of NDEs. Some people can read this material and come away believing that NDEs are real experiences, while some will have an opposite view. Some will remain undecided. Regardless, I think that whichever view one takes, one has to be impressed with how powerfully NDEs changed the lives of those who had them. It is also impressive how they seem to no longer have a fear of death.
I personally believe that some NDEs are veiled glimpses of an afterlife.
Dealing With Suffering
The thing this book most reminded me of is that there are many, many people who suffer all day, every day. Some people like this are an inspiration, and some are just sad.
My late wife, Vickie, was in a motorcycle accident in 1980 that nearly took her life. Although she was spared, she lost a knee cap, developed osteoarthritis early, had migraines (she had been in a coma for two weeks), and so on. Yet, everyone who knew her considered her a joy to be around. Her love of live, her love of the beauty of creation, and her love of humanity absolutely radiated from her. This was despite the pain she lived in.
Vickie chose to be happy and have a positive outlook on life. She did not wallow in the questions of “why did this happen to me … how could God allow this … why, why, why?”
So much of what we see in life is determined by what we chose to see. For example, since Vickie’s passing, it has been a lot easier for me to see the negatives in life. I read of a tornado nearly wiping out a small town and I think “How could God allow this to happen?” Yet, when I walk out on my back porch on a beautiful day like today and see the wonder of the leaves changing color and the clarity of the Autumn sky, I generally fail to ask how God could allow that to happen.
I have used the following quote from philosopher Keith Ward before, but it bears repeating:
It often seems that we can neither stand the thought of God acting often (since that would infringe our freedom), nor the thought of him acting rarely (since that makes him responsible for our suffering).
(cited in Polkinghorne’s The Faith of a Physicist: Reflections of a Bottom-Up Thinker (Theology and the Sciences)
How true.
Don also made clear how significantly others can be in helping those who are suffering:
- He talked at length about the quality of the doctors and nurses who worked so hard to help him. It reminds me to be grateful for medical personnel throughout the world who work tirelessly to alleviate suffering and to save lives. It is far too easy to take these dedicated people for granted.
- He said something that I want to quote because it captures the human spirit so well: “The capacity for sacrifice and service that human beings have for one another knows no bounds.” Almost every time I hear of some tragedy, I also hear that people are working to help the victims of the tragedy.
Don often referred to how his friends and family tried so often to help him, and he shrugged away their efforts. He noted that his pride got in the way, and that he did not want to feel like he was imposing on the kindness of his friends.
He said that he did not learn until later that these people needed to help him. They needed him to know that they cared, and doing little things for him would have done the trick, but he generally refused help.
That’s a lesson that hit home with me. I remember when Vickie passed away, my friends were often asking me over for dinner, or inviting me to spend some time with them just talking. I kept telling them I would be okay. Honestly, I just wanted to be by myself. But, in looking back, they needed to help me, and I learned this lesson too late.
Hence, if tragedy strikes in your life, remember that your friends and family genuinely need for you to let them help you.
Small Decisions With Big Consequences
Sometimes a seemingly small decision can have major, even deadly, consequences. On the day of Don’s accident, he was driving back home from a conference that was a few hours from his house. He had two ways he could go back, and he chose one that turned out to have a stretch of road (and a bridge) that had a high accident rate. (He did not realize this when he made the decision.)
Had he gone the other way, a way he knew well, he might not have had an accident. This just reinforces what it so easy to forget when we get wrapped up in the mundaneness of life: everything that we do matters.
Pay Attention To Your Premonitions
If Don had a premonition about his accident, he did not mention it, so I doubt that he had one. But, reading his book made me think back to a premonition I had.
About two weeks before Vickie passed away, I kept having an almost constant thought of her telling me “I am soooo sorry.” In my head I could hear her repeating that several times a day, and before I would lay down at night, and sometimes as soon as I woke up.
I shrugged it off, thinking that she probably bought something that cost more than I would have to spend, or something else that really did not matter.
Was I having a premonition about her death? I don’t know. And, even if I had paid more attention to it, I do not know if I could have stopped it from happening.
I do know that I have learned from this to pay attention to any premonitions I am blessed to receive.
Living Our Purpose
Reverend Piper makes clear throughout this book that he never really received an answer to his question of “why could I not stay in Heaven, and what am I supposed to do back on Earth?”
Many of us have struggled to understand our purpose in life. I am one of those. I felt “on purpose” when Vickie was alive, but I have not felt on-purpose since then. It is something I wonder a lot about.
Don came to see that it was fruitless to ask the question “why did this happen to me?” He realized that the better question is “What do I do now that this has happened?”
I get more into these questions in an article I wrote in 2004, which you can access here. It does not have any final answers. I could set and revise that document every day and never be happy with it, but it does contain some thoughts and facts that may be of interest to you if you are trying to address these questions.
Wrap-up
As you can see, Don’s book caused me to think about a lot of things. I appreciate him taking the time and going through the effort of sharing a part of his life (and death) with us.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
What did Don say heaven was like?
-Madison
Madison,
It’s now been so long since I read that I cannot recall a lot of his specifics about heaven. However, I do recall he had remarkably little to say about it. I recall he was surprised by some of the people he saw there, that he did not go much beyond what one might call the “front gate” or entrance way, and so on.
But the most telling thing that he had to say about it, and that he mentioned over and over in the book, was that it pains him even today, years later, that he was not allowed to remain there … he said that what he felt while there was beyond anything he could describe. He mentions over and over that he would gladly leave everyone and everything else he loves behind (for now) to be there. I had the sense that he was at a loss for words. I suspect I would be too.