90 MINUTES IN HEAVEN

A man at my church gave me a copy of a book to read. The author is Don Piper and the title is 90 Minutes in Heaven.

And yes, as you can tell from the title, it is one of those first hand accounts of experiencing death, getting a glimpse of the afterlife, and then returning to life.

I never know what to make of such stories. I tend to be guarded in believing anything out of the ordinary. 

I know some of these afterlife stories have proven to be outright lies, but this guy seems pretty sincere and he's been telling the same tale since 1989. Several eyewitnesses could testify to him being pronounced dead at the scene of a terrible car accident. 

The rational, Western, scientific side of my brain wants to say that if the man's telling the truth, what he's really describing are scenes his dying brain created from the trauma or false memories produced during his time on the operating table while doctors worked for hours to patch him up.

But what if he is describing a true out of body experience? What if his experience was exactly what he believes it was?

Most of the Christian books I have read in the last few years have been dense and academic. 90 Minutes in Heaven is not like those books. 

This book forces me to wrestle with a very revealing faith question: 

When it comes to the "afterlife" (which is really going to be true life at long last) - do I honestly believe it is going to live up to its biblical reputation? 

Do you and I believe it for ourselves? 

And do we believe it for those who are dear to us?

If we do ... how come so many of our prayers amount to begging God to delay the afterlife for ourselves and our loved ones?