A near-death experience makes you think. Especially when it’s eternal death.

Last night, right before we went to bed, Grayson took our puppy outside. When he opened our door, he found our neighbor laying at the bottom of her staircase on the concrete landing below. She was unconscious, with blood coming out of both ears and labored breathing.

It’s one of those times when you can hear in your spouse’s voice that something is very wrong.

When I saw her, I thought she was dead until I heard her faint and determined breaths. The paramedics, along with 5 squad cars, 2 ambulances and at least 1 fire truck lit up our whole street. By the time they took her away she was slightly conscious.

As we followed the ambulance to the hospital, all I could think was, “She’s not saved.”

The immediacy and tragedy of the situation was not that she could lose her life, but that she might have been in hell that very night. What could I have done to prevent her eternal damnation?

During that 20-minute drive I was consumed by guilt. Yes, I’ve invited her to church on several occasions, and yes, our life and marriage is a testimony to this lost women, but truly, what initiation was not taken? I did not see the urgency.

I see it now. But will I see it tomorrow? Will I see it in a few weeks, when, prayerfully she returns home?

She is ok, for now. She’ll remain in the ICU for a few more days undergoing observation for the bleeding in her brain and five skull fractures. If she pulls through; if she makes a full recovery; this I pray will be her turning point.

Oh Lord, pull her through this, and give me another chance.

Why is it that we take so lightly the urgency of the Gospel? That phrase in itself, “urgency of the Gospel”, has lost its intensity and fierceness. We could name a million things that distract us from sharing the Gospel with those we come into regular contact with, but when it comes down to it, we are cowards. Where is the “fire shut up in my bones”? Woe to me if I speak not the Gospel. We just take it so lightly, we don’t even consider the repercussions. We don’t consider the consequences of our lack of effort. We don’t consider the souls on their way to eternal destruction–Hell.

May God have mercy on us, and may He embolden us, for we have the greatest message in the world to proclaim!

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes…” Romans 1:16

May I not be a hypocrite in writing this.