Tiffany

It was February 6, 2005, my birthday, and life was great! My husband and I had been married just 7 months and we were still experiencing marital bliss. In addition, my job as a teacher was sailing along perfectly, life was under control, and it was very good.

I asked for God's forgiveness and welcomed Jesus into my heart as a young child, and over the years I had learned that faith did not guarantee an easy life, but at this point, my life was very, very good! Then things changed.

My husband flew to Dallas on Sunday for a week long business trip and I was home with what I thought was the flu. But the flu worsened and on Tuesday night I called him and told him he needed to come home immediately. I was gasping for breath and no amount of medication could ease my symptoms. Upon arriving home my husband took me to the hospital where they diagnosed me with the flu. They gave me a nebulizer treatment and said to take it easy. Later that night I sat on the couch and told my husband that I didn't want to go to sleep because I was afraid of never waking up again. We returned to the hospital.

One and a half days later I was in a coma. For 14 days my husband and family sat alongside my bed watching in horror as the doctors read my toxic pH levels and sadly told them there was a strong probability I would not survive. I had a very rare disease called MRSA pneumonia with severe ARDS, a torn lung, and my entire body was in severe septic shock.

I didn't know what had happened to me. When I finally awoke I thought I had just had a bad dream. I had no idea I had been unconscious for 14 days and that I had nearly died. I quickly realized my life had been turned completely upside down. My perfect job and our blissful marriage were shattered. I was now dependent on my husband, family and the hospital staff for all of my needs.

Over the last year I have had to learn again how to breath on my own, eat, keep my balance while sitting, walk and drive. In fact, I am still recovering. All of this seems extreme, but what is more amazing is the dramatic change that Jesus has made in my life because of my brush with death. God saved my life! There is no way that modern medicine alone saved me. God knew that it was not yet my time to die, and He has taught me much through this experience.

Before my illness I looked at my job as a way to prove my self-worth, but by being forced to give up my job, I have learned that nothing else really matters except Jesus and my relationship with Him. Jobs are important and God has created us to work and derive satisfaction from it. But Jesus is more important, and I needed to learn that. God has also taught me to put more value in people than in projects and tasks to be completed. As a result, our marriage has a new depth and love greater than we had previously enjoyed.

During this past year, God has taken me from the highest mountaintop to the very lowest of valleys. But it is in those valleys where my heart has been cultivated into fertile soil for Jesus to plant seeds worth harvesting. Mountaintop lifestyles have an amazing view, but nothing grows on mountaintops. Valleys aren't great long-term homes either because they are extremely painful, but a great good has come from my time in the valley.

My illness has reminded me, my family and friends that life is precious. Going through this pain together, we have been vividly reminded that life can change in an instant, and that God can bring great good out of what appears to be a tragedy. I now know God much more intimately than ever before, and I have a new love for my Savior and my healer.