Janaury 7th … My Life and Death Story – Part 5

(continued)

Mom and dad had left in the afternoon to go shopping in Fort Wayne before they ended up at a birthday party for my cousin, Darcy. (I don’t think my cousin has ever let me forget ruining her birthday that year.) My dad had just gotten his first cell phone the week before and didn’t even so much as know the number yet. Once Sarah and her family arrived at the hospital in Angola, they took on the burden of trying to get in touch with my parents. Unfortuately no one knew how to get ahold of them. Alison, Sarah’s mom, at one point asked Nick if he knew my aunt’s telephone number where the birthday party was supposed to be held that evening.

With his eyes closed, and just drifting above consciousness Nick replied, “1251″. To this day, we have no idea how Nick knew their phone number. It wasn’t something my brother or I needed to call, until that day, January 7th. Alison was able to get in touch with my aunt Toni and told her what was happening. Should mom and dad call, have them call her cell phone immediately.

After a few hours of shopping, my dad was anxious to show off his new cell phone to mom and so he stopped around 4:30 pm in the parking lot and wanted to show her how it worked. His idea was to call my aunt Toni, just for illustration’s sake on what this new fangled gadget could do. They never could have imagined the news they were about to receieve on the other end of that phone.

The only 2 sons were both in critical condition. 1 in a neck brace. The other in brain surgery.

January 7th … My Life and Death Story – Part 4

(part 4, continued)

My brother was still being treated at the hospital in Angola. They discovered he had crushed the 3rd vertibrae in his neck 10%. He spent 8 weeks in a neck brace and missed a semester of college. Because of our accident, he had to stay through the next summer to finish his degree. It was during those summer months that he met his wife, Elizabeth. He would have never been there had it not been for our accident on January 7th.

Meanwhile, Sarah and her parents were now 60 miles away. “I’ve never seen my dad drive so fast in my entire life,” she told me later. Sarah actually had a journal that she recorded her thoughts in later that night. She wrote 8 pages of some of the most raw and gut wrenching emotions I have ever heard come out of her.

The helicopter landed at Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne, IN, and I was immediately rushed into the O.R. Dr. Isa Conavatti. I still remember the doctor’s name. He’s the only person on the entire planet who has ever seen my brain. That’s crazy for me to think about.

They shaved the front left half of my head and then cut a moon shaped incision in my skin. They drilled in to my skull to relieve the pressure and when they pulled the drill out, they later told us the blood shot out and hit the wall of the O.R. 10 feet away. They put in a drainage tube and wrapped my head. I think the surgery took like 4 or 5 hours.

I can’t imagine how my parents were feeling… how they got the news was another story entirely…

January 7th … My Life and Death Story – Part 3

(part 3, continued from yesterday)

The EMS took us to the nearest hospital in Angola, IN, a small town just a few miles inside the Michigan boarder. Once at the hospital they ran a CT scan on my brain. They discovered I had a blood clot on my brain the size of a softball and it was getting bigger. If I didn’t have emergency surgery to relieve the pressure, I would die.

In Northeast Indiana there was only 1 medical helicopter in the entire region at that time. And it was presently tending to another life or death situation miles away. The helicopter was called off of that emergency to come and pick me up and take me to a larger hospital 60 miles away.

At the time, Sarah and I were still just dating. She was only 17 and a senior in high school. We knew we were meant for one another, but that was still a dream for years to come. The guys had called Sarah and her family when the EMS had arrived at the campground, so she was able to come to the small hospital shortly after I had arrived. In those days I wore a gold chain with a cross on it. I guess during the entire ordeal, they took my cross and chain and handed it Sarah and said, “You may want this.”

I can’t imagine what it must have felt like for her to see the man she would one day marry and dreamed of spending her life with, loaded onto a helicopter with the hope that his life could be saved. She was 17. I was 19. And because this was in the time that cell phones were a luxury not a necessity, we had no way of getting ahold of my parents.

January 7th … My Life and Death Story – Part 2

(continued from yesterday…)

After take off, we rounded a corner and the sled slid out wide to the left going down into the ditch next to the path we were on. (Picture a water skier going out wide behind a ski boat). Unfortuately what none of us saw was the row of telephone poles lining the ditch as well. We were headed straight for a pole at 35 mph. Faces buried in the sled, eyes blinded by the snow, an imminent collision ahead.

The ski rope hit the telephone pole first and then jerked the sled up into the telephone pole. Nick’s neck curled up into the toboggan sled and I struck the pole literally “head on” at an estimated 50 mph. The sled shattered and the two of us were thrown 20 feet beyond the pole. The guys came running up to us yelling and cheering until they saw me face down in a pool of blood.

Taitem, who had been a lifeguard all summer the year before, reached me first and recognized what was happening. He stablized my neck and rolled me over all the while shouting, “Call 911!” Nick was moving around but was experiencing immense pain in his neck. After Taitem pulled my ski mask off of my face he couldn’t figure out what the white powdery stuff was all over my mask. The powdery stuff was my 3 front teeth. They had been smashed into the back of my brother’s head. and never mind the powdery stuff, I had a golf ball sized bump protruding from my left temple, and blood coming from my ears.

January 7th, 1995 … My Life and Death Story – Part 1

I woke up this morning with the same words that come out of my mouth first every January 7th. “I’m Alive.” I’ll never be able to forget what happened 13 years ago. January 7th, 1995.

It was a typical winter Saturday in Indiana. We had gotten about 4 inches of snow on the ground through the night, so my buddies and I decided to go toboggan sledding, like we had the year before. For those of you who know what toboggan sledding is, what we were talking about wasn’t your typical toboggan sledding deal, with a track and an hourly waged employee helping you on and off the sled while instructing you to “keep your hands, and arms tucked inside at all times.” No, we were going Extreme Toboggan sledding.

We drove to a campground about 30 minutes north of where we lived and would spend the day riding on a toboggan sled tied behind a pick up truck with a ski rope. We used couch cushions to make the ride less bumpy. When we arrived at the campground, my brother and I opened the trunk and started to pull out 2 snowmobile helmets we had from our childhood. At once, all of our friends began immediately mocking. “Did your mom make you bring those?” “The 1970′s called, they want their helmets back.” “What are you 8 years old?” So without another thought, we replied with a “Just kiddin’” and threw them back in the trunk.

Extreme sledding is quite an exhilarating thing to do on a Saturday in Indiana. It’s got all the elements of fun 6 late teen and early 20 something guys look for. Speed, risk, adrenaline, and danger. What we didn’t realize, or perhaps more accurately had chosen to overlook was just how much danger it had.

It was late in the day (around 4 pm) and it was my brother and I’s turn to ride. Sled, cushions, Nick, and myself. Stacked up one on top of the other like a cold meat sandwich on hoagie bread. Nick’s head was tucked up under the curl of the toboggan sled to shield his face from the massive amounts of snow flying toward us. My face was situationed facing down into the back of my brother’s head, to shield my face from the snow. Little did we know that snow would be the least of our concerns in about 30 seconds.

My Geocaching Adventure!

So a pastor friend of mine from Ohio, Mike Cole, and his wife Trinda have been down visiting this weekend. Escaping the cold up north etc.

So yesterday, (Sunday) afternoon, Mike tells me that he wanted a GPS device for Christmas. To which I’m thinking, “Are you serious? Why? All is does is give you directions to places right?” But then, he whips it out and starts showing me all the stuff it can do. Oh… my … gosh… that thing is SO cool!

So then he starts telling about this thing called Geocaching. (www.Geocaching.com) Basically you go to the geocaching website and put in the address of wherever you are (in the world), and it will tell you where all of these “Hidden Treasures” are near you! It gives you the exact GPS coordinates. It’s a Global Treasure Hunt! So there are like millions of these Hidden Treasures all over the world now, and you use a GPS to go and find them.

Enter Scott Drummond. So we go over to Pastor Scott and Kirsten’s last night for dinner and when we get there Mike starts telling Scott about Geocaching. To which Scott whips out his computer and we put in his address… What happened next feels more surreal then actual, but it’s true I tell you. True.

After we successfully had broken the code (like Tom Hanks in the Da Vinci Code movie) we had what we needed for our Adventure.

Before we know it, we’re running to my car like Bank Robbers! The GPS (who we named Suzi) is giving us directions to a Hidden Treasure in Scott’s neighborhood! It was like the coolest thing! We get within a hundred feet of the Treasure and then we had to search and destroy on foot. MIke is holding the GPS unit and telling us the coordinates as we walk through this woods. With every step, the intensity was rising! I swear there was a mote with a dragon and an alligator in it as I crossed this rickety log bridge!

After 15 minutes of searching in the woods, Scott yells out, “Hey, hey guys right there!” Sure enough, he dives in to this clump of trees and pulls out a camoflage ammo box. We open it up and there are all kinds of Treasures in there! (Stuffed animals, golf balls, key chains, etc.) Every person who finds it leaves something behind and can take something with them as well if they want. There was a log book, so we signed our names. (All the while I was totally watching for the cops and stuff!) (I was going to leave a Next Level Church card, but Scott convinced me that would be lame.)

After a few minutes of enjoying our Global Treasure Hunt, we stood, made our way out of the forest (it was a big clump of trees) and returned to our All Terrain Vehicle (my car) victorious! The other guys only suffered a couple of wounds (read, burrs stuck to their flip flops) and I escaped without a trace on my crocs. (I could have simply washed them off had their been any mud on them).

A few minutes later we were back in the safety of Scott’s house, surrounded by our wives who would never know or even hope to understand the danger we had been in, how we had risked our lives, and the adventure that would probably bond our friendship for a lifetime! We didn’t even try to explain it to them.

So I think I found a new hobby… Geocaching. Talk about something that doesn’t look anything like my life! Dragons, and gators, and forests and adventures and firey motes. It was all real. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

I gotta run, I’m pricing out GPS units online…

Matt

My ADD has been bad lately

I don’t know if it’s the holidays or the stress I’ve been feeling with my
wife all “laid up” with her foot surgery or what, but seriously, my ADD has
been through the roof lately.

I walked into Sam’s Club the other morning and had to buy 3 things. My wife
had made me a list and everything, and the minute I walked in, it was like,
“Wowlookatallthetvsandwheredidthemoviesgothatusedtobeintheentranceandthispla
ceisawesome,waitwhatwasIsupposedtocomeinhereforagain?whyareallthosepeoplejus
tstandingaroundandwaitIknowI’mhereforsomethingwhatwasitshesaidIneededtogetag
ain?howcomethegrinderforthecoffeeisonlynexttothecoffeeIliketobuy?whataboutth
epeoplewhodrinkotherkindsofcoffeearetheylessworthytohaveagrindernexttothemth
anIam?maybeI’mmakingtoomuchofthis.whyamIhereagain?

Seriously, that’s what it feels like right now! Dead serious. If you have
ADD then you totally know what I’m talking about but there’s also no way
you’ve been able to concentrate long enough to get to the end of this, so I
know you’re not reading this.

It was a good day when I actually embraced this whole ADD thing. For a long
time I didn’t want to use it as an “excuse” but now I realize that It’s got
good sides and bad sides. The bad sides are, that occasionally a trip to
Sam’s Club can feel like a bag of scrabble letters. The good side is, When
I’m in the zone, I can get a lot done. It’s finding the zone and not
letting things knock you out of it, that’s the challenge. Thank God my
wife, Sarah, my assistant, Susan, and my staff that know this about me.

Occasionally, it’s like, “Just leave him alone, he’s in the zone.” When
that happens I can write like 3 messages in 3 hours kind of thing. It’s
crazy like that.

Anyway,

Keller

All The Things I’m Learning (Part 6) The final installment

By part 6, my ADD has set in now, & honestly, I have no idea what number were on any more. So we’ll just start with 16, sound good?

16. I’m learning about Long Term Grace in my life. I can’t even tell you
how spot on Mike Ash’s message was in week 4 of our Fuel for Life Series
last month. He talked about God’s purpose for Suffering and absolutely just
opened my eyes to a whole new perspective of what it means to “have a thorn
in the flesh” as Paul writes about in the New Testament. The idea that it’s
possible that God actually leaves “stuff” in our life that keeps us postured
toward dependence on Him, lest we be tempted to think, “our strength is
sufficient.” I love what Paul says about “His strength being made perfect
in our weakness.” Man, that’s so true. You know, Paul had some really
amazing insights.

17. I’m learning that my creativity is a unique gifting from God. I’m so
thankful for the people in my life that keep me focused and organized and
own all the details of my life so that I can be who God has uniquely created
me to be … Which is creative. The team around me makes so many of my
ideas look way better than they could ever be if I had to try and execute it
alone. I love working with my team. They make me a better pastor,
communicator, speaker, & writer.

I’m just really thankful for the people I get to do life and ministry with.

Just a bloggish thought,

matt

All the Things (Part 5)

Today’s installment is just one thing I’m learning with clarity about myself. I challenge you to pray for clarity about your “calling” as well.

I’m learning I’m called to do 3 things:

1. Write (Messages & Books). Writing fuels me like nothing else can. The
entire process of learning and reading and studying and praying and
developing a thought and seeing new things in Scripture just make me feel
strong like nothing else can. I struggled with this calling for several years, because, quite honestly, I never felt like I would have anything to say. (At least that other people would want to read, anyway.)

It feels good to be stepping into that calling now. Wow.
2. Speak. Speaking comes easy for me. That’s the part of my job that I
enjoy. It’s probably the part I get most nervous about as well though. I
feel such a Holy Responsibility for what I’m about to say to so many people
every week, it’s crazy. I also have a Holy Nervousness that God will show
up and change hearts. I’m so aware that, my talent alone, doesn’t have the
power to change anybody. Only with the Holy Spirit convicting and changing
hearts does anything good have the potential of happening. That’s serious
business for me.

3) Coaching other Leaders. My heart beats to teach others what we have
learned and are continuing to learn about leadership, church planting,
ministry, creativity, & doing church in our cultural context. Nothing fires
me up more than a phone call with a church planter or a meeting with a young
leader.
What “fires you up?” What fills your tank? If you don’t know, start having conversations with others about it. Because the sooner you find out, the sooner you’ll start moving boldly in the direction of your calling.

Just a bloggish challenge,

Matt

All the Things I’m Learning (Part 4)

Here’s my hypothesis: Each of us are capable of making a list of what we’re learning in our lives as well. I just happen to write them down and publish them to the World Wide Web for all to see. Feel free to comment back and let us know what you’re learning in your world as well. I’d love to hear it and learn along with you…

12. I’m learning what it means to Trust… Really trust. Dr. Richard
Powell, who is the pastor of MacGregor Baptist Church here in Fort Myers, FL
(& an amazing leader, pastor & guy) told me recently over lunch that, “I
would have to learn to completely turn my back on entire areas of NLC. That
would be when I could know that I’ve completely given away ministry to
others.” I have definitely adopted that phrase, “turn my back” recently.
That takes trust. And man, it’s hard sometimes.

13. I’m learning Jealousy can hit you quick. I’m amazed at how quickly I
can drift toward jealousy or comparison in my life. I see another guy’s
book, or hear of something another guy is doing in a church somewhere, and I
immediately rush to judgment. I hate that about myself. That’s the kind of
stuff you have to crucify on the cross ya know.

15. I’m learning about sins of Commission & sins of Omission. This isn’t
new information for me, but I was recently refreshed to the categories.
Sins of Commission are those things we do that don’t please God. Sins of
Ommission are those things we DON’T do, that consequently cause us to miss
out on God’s best for our lives.
Where are we guilty of a sin of “Omission” in our life? Where are we hesitating to take a step of faith, instead of pushing through and just trusting God.

Just a bloggish thought,

Matt