The Last Thing I'll Need - Part 1
Whisperers, Backbiters, and other poisonous things
“A man tried to sell me a coffin the other day,
I told him that’s the last thing I need….”
I’m Serious as a Heart Attack
What a week it had been.
Three days of physical labor working 10-12 hours. A funeral preached outdoors at the Veterans Cemetery in the blazing heat of the Northern Sacramento Valley summer, and then several days of food, the lake, swimming, fishing, fun and the yearly family reunion. I topped off the week by preaching at a local church for 45 minutes on Sunday.
The family reunion was over, and Monday had arrived. My daughters were flying back to their lives in Southern California and Montana, and I was getting up at 4 AM to take them to the airport an hour away.
Sunday night I decided to sleep in my recliner, and my wife Kim decided to join me in the living room on the sofa. I was more comfortable sitting upright to sleep, and it made the indigestion I’d been having for a few weeks feel better.
When 4 AM rolled around, I hadn’t slept well, and I wasn’t up to the drive. I was belching and feeling weak. My son drove the girls instead.
I fell back to sleep until around 8:00, and getting up to relieve myself, a sudden pain started in my shoulder and traveled down my arm, all the way to my wrist.
It occurred to me that I might be having more than a little heartburn. I thought to myself, “This might be serious”.
We keep the aspirin on the shelf with a bevy of supplements and herbs in our pantry. I’d read that if you’re having a heart attack you can help reduce the damage by chewing an aspirin at the first sign of cardiac arrest. I grabbed an aspirin and chewed it up and swallowed it down.
The pain was intense in my chest and shoulders and arms.
“Kim”, I said. “Kim….Wake up”
“What? “ She asked groggily.
“I think you need to drive me to the hospital” I said.
“You’ve never asked me that before” she replied.
“I’ve never felt this way before.”
That was three years ago. I’ve started and then stopped multiple times to put down in words some of the lessons I’ve learned from having a moderate heart attack that late June morning. A short list might include...
People can be jerks. Church people can be some of the worst sort of jerks. I know, because I’ve been one of them.
There’s a difference between pardon and forgiveness. Pardon means “to release from punishment”. Forgiveness cancels the crime and entirely pardons the offender.
Sugar is a toxic poison that can kill you.
The Best Heart Health supplements aren’t usually on the cardiac health shelf at the store
A lot of the nutritional advice for cardiac health is wrong
Gossip and Slander kills
What Caused My Heart Attack?
Stress. “You’re killing me Smalls!” I let gossip, lies, and slander affect me too much. They were determined to kill the ministry we were involved in, and their lies nearly killed me. I should have let it roll off my back.
Sugar. Sugar is a bigger cause of heart issues than cholesterol. Sugar is at the root of the big three killers. Heart Disease, Diabetes, and Cancer. Sugar is a slow acting poison.
Diet. Americas infatuation with fast and processed food will be the death of her people. Eat real food. Cut way down on bread. Eat more meat. Eat more vegetables. Read food labels and stop eating anything with sucralose, acesulfame, aspartame, or any other dangerous fake sugars. Start using monkfruit, stevia, xylitol, allulose, and other “-ol” sugars. Probably the safest sugar substitute was slandered decades ago by the collaboration of the agri-tech and medical media influence with the intent of making huge profits in both arenas. I’m talking about saccharin. Try a packet in your next iced tea.
Eliminate the stress, improve your diet, and start taking vitamins and supplements that can help and you’ll be leaps and bounds ahead of your peers. If you haven’t had cardiac issues yet, maybe I can help you avoid some of them in the future.