Early one morning as I arrived at the beach following a big storm, I found it littered with starfish as far as the eye could see. Off in the distance a young man was approaching. As he walked along the shore he would pause, bend down, pick something up and throw it into the ocean.
As we approached each other, I said “good morning! May I ask what you are doing?” He paused and said, “throwing starfish back into the ocean. The storm has washed them up on the beach and they cannot get back to the water by themselves.” the young man replied, “When the sun gets high, they will die, unless I throw them back into the ocean.” I replied, “But there must be thousands of starfish on this beach. I am afraid in the grand scheme of things you won’t really make much of a difference.” The young man reached down, picked up another starfish and threw it as far as he could into the ocean. Then he turned, smiled and said, “I made a difference to that one!” (adapted from The Star Thrower, by Loren Eiseley (1907 – 1977)
Early Wednesday morning, June 3, 2020, like the starfish I was stranded by the failure of my heart, facing certain death. I had a 100% atrioventricular (AV) block. The electric system of my heart had come unplugged, immediate heart stoppage, no heartbeat or pulse. My distress woke my wife up who immediately called 911.
The Fire Department arrived first followed by the EMSA paramedics. Immediately CPR was started and once in the ambulance I was hooked up to a defibrator. I arrived at the Oklahoma Heart Hospital South flat lined. The defibrator was all that was preventing death. Without the heart being able to restart I would be hearing the angles sing. The ER staff went to work, the cardiologist on call happened to be Dr. Cody Jewell, my A fib specialist whom I had just seen a few days earlier. I was taken into emergency surgery to install a pacemaker which in itself is not a guarantee my heart would respond. But respond it did and I was released the next day.
I thought of the starfish story by Eisley and thought of how it applied to my life. 647,000 people died in the USA with heart related issues last year. When the firemen and the paramedics arrived, they could have taken the attitude that in the grand scheme of things, they probably wouldn’t make a difference with my life or death issue. The ER staff when I arrived to their care, could have taken the same attitude. The same with my Doctor. But they didn’t!
As I thought of this, I asked myself, Who in my life have I crossed paths with, when looking at their problems or seeing their distress, thought, “In the grand scheme of things I really can’t make a difference.” Truth is we may never know the difference we make in someone’s life with a little kindness, helping hand or thoughtful words. The world will look at us and say, “with all the problems in the world, what difference can you make. We can smile, do our part and say with confidence, “I made a difference in this person’s life.”
Something else I did was to reach out to the Firemen, Paramedics, Doctor’s and Nurses and said, “Thank you for not giving up on me and because you didn’t I can say with a THANKFUL HEART, You Made a Difference to Me.
There is another who has stepped in to make a difference in our lives, Jesus. Hebrews 9:27-28 says, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
Have you let Him make a difference in your life?