God is in Control

I never doubted God or that His Son is my Savior. I did doubt that God was in control of my daily activities. I know now that He is in control! Jeremiah 32:27 states, “Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?” God showed me that He is in control; nothing is too hard for Him.

Thanksgiving, 1989, I was 55 years old and married to a beautiful, active woman for 34 years. My career was going well. I was in control of my life; or, so I thought! I still prayed when something happened that I could not control, but that was not as often as it should have been. I should have been talking to God everyday.

My wife, Billie, and I were driving 300 miles to Mom and Dad’s house the day before Thanksgiving. When we got up Wednesday morning, Billie complained of heartburn. I did not know that she had been bothered with very bad heartburn for a couple of days. I asked if we needed to see a doctor before leaving. She said, “No, I will just take some Pepto-Bismolā.”

Billie slept most of the way to Wichita Falls, about halfway to where Mom and Dad lived. As we drove through Wichita Falls, her heartburn became unbearable. She complained of chest pains and back pains and said her arm was getting numb. I asked her, “Do you want to find a hospital?”

She replied, “No,” and took more Pepto-Bismolā. I did not know where to find a hospital in Wichita Falls but turned around five miles north of town and headed back because she was in intense pain. I decided to find the nearest hospital.

As we drove through Wichita Falls. Several people had been talking on the CB radio so I picked up the mike and asked for directions to a hospital. There was no response, nothing but dead silence on the CB radio; not even any noise. I realized that I now needed God’s help. We were in a situation that I could not control. I prayed, “Lord, help me to find a hospital. Please take care of my wife.” I repeated the prayer over and over.

Coming into Wichita Falls from the north on Highway 287, a large blue sign marks the first exit to Wichita General Hospital. Neither of us saw it!

Downtown Wichita Falls has one-way streets for several blocks, both east/west and north/south. Wichita General Hospital was a large building about a block to the right of southbound 287 before the first stoplight. As I reached the first stoplight, we saw a small blue hospital sign pointing to the right, but I was in the middle lane and going through the intersection before we saw the sign.

Knowing that the next street was one-way to the left; I moved over and took that turn. I circled the block and came back across southbound 287 where we saw the small blue hospital sign. Wichita General Hospital was about a half block to my right, but we did not see it! I looked to the left and saw a tall building about two blocks away, with a white cross on top. I said, “That is where we’re going.”

The tall building was Bethania, the Catholic hospital. As I stopped at the Emergency Room entrance, two medics came out with a wheelchair, as if they expected us. They opened the car door and were getting Billie out as I came around the car and said, “My wife has chest pains.”

One medic said, “She is in good hands, you can take care of the paperwork later.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

The medic replied, “You can’t leave your car here. You are blocking the Emergency Room entrance. Find a place in the parking lot to park. Your wife is in good hands.”

After parking the car, I grabbed Billie’s purse for her insurance information and returned to the Emergency Room. Billie was already in a small treatment room. I could see a silver-haired doctor and a nurse with her so I went to the admitting desk and took care of the paperwork. I then sat down with Billie’s purse in my lap and began praying that she would be okay.

The doctor with Billie was the chief Emergency Room Surgeon because it was lunchtime and the hospital was shorthanded with the Thanksgiving holiday. The doctor came out, introduced himself, and told me my wife was having a “small” heart attack. They were administering TPA, a miracle drug to break up the clot, which Billie had authorized. Later the doctor told me that we were within minutes of being too late.

The doctor asked me how we knew to come to Bethania. He explained that all the heart specialists in Wichita Falls practice at Bethania. The other hospital would have checked her in and then sent her to Bethania. We would have lost precious time, possibly too much time. After a while, the medical team moved Billie to the CCU area where I could visit her every four hours.

Four hours later I was visiting Billie in CCU, standing by the bed, holding her hand when I noticed the heart beats on the heart monitor becoming erratic and going flat line; bells began ringing. The monitor showed the word “fibrillation.” I had no idea what “fibrillation” meant, but anytime I had seen a monitor show “fibrillation” in movies, the patient died. Attendants ran me out of the room as they came in with electric paddles.

I was talking to God as I went to the waiting room. I was not ready to lose my wife of 34 years and begged God to take care of her as the tears streamed down my face. I was selfish and wanted to keep her with me.

Within a few minutes a nurse came into the waiting room calling my name. Her first words were, “Your wife is all right. We did not use the paddles. She recovered on her own.” The nurse wrapped her arms around my shoulders and stood there holding me as she continued explaining that my wife was okay. She said, “Let’s go see your wife. I want you to see with your own eyes that she is okay.”

I visited with Billie for a few minutes and thanked God that He had answered my prayers. I then left to find a motel room and get a bite to eat before the next visiting-hour period.

That night at the motel room, I was on my knees praying for a long time. I thanked God for helping me find the hospital. I thanked Him for bringing her through the flat line incident in CCU. I vowed to talk to Him more often and leave everything up to Him.

A cardiologist did a heart catheter and an angioplasty on Billie during her ten-day stay at Bethania. The angioplasty was successful, although she became an insulin-dependant diabetic during the following year. In 1998, she was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, because of the damage done to her heart during that heart attack in 1989. In September 2002, she had quadruple-bypass surgery because of four major blockages and an aneurysm on one of the blockages, but she is still with me. Thank the Lord!

We drive through Wichita Falls several times a year and marvel that we did not see Wichita General Hospital. I believe God blinded me to Wichita General Hospital and guided me to Bethania. He made His point clear by having me circle the block so I should definitely see Wichita General, which I did not.

If I had gone to the second street, which was one-way to the right, I would have seen Bethania first with no chance of seeing Wichita General. I believe circling the block was God’s way of showing me that it was not an accident that I missed Wichita General and found Bethania. He was showing me that He is in control!

I thank God many times a day for allowing me to enjoy the company of my wife for a few more years. I have no doubts that God is in control of my day-to-day life, not me, for which I thank Him every day. A song I heard recently goes, “When I didn’t have my hand in Yours Lord, You had Your hand on me.” I am glad that He had His hand on me when I didn’t have my hand in His.

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