Authentic Community

Over a year ago, I went to the hospital with chest pressure. They ran all the tests and did a heart cath on me. At that time they found two blockages (something like 70% and 90%). They were very small arteries... branches off of the bigger arteries.
They put me on medications and sent me home.

Fast forward. My brother, my younger brother, had a mild heart attack a few weeks ago. He ended up having two more stents put in (that makes four for him). Well, needless to say, that prompted me to check in with my cardiologist, just to make sure I am still using the correct meds, etc.

After doing some tests on me he decided he wanted to do another heart cath and put in balloons and stents. Karen had all of my friends and family praying for me and some friends volunteered to keep our children overnight, since we had to be there so early.

So I went to the hospital yesterday (Tuesday). When the doc got in there he said that there were no new blockages and the ones that he had seen last year were, in his words, "not as bad as I remember them." Lightly sedated and half asleep, I asked him, "So you are not going to do the balloons?" He said there was no reason to fix something that wasn't broken.

The last thing he told me before he left the room was "Keep exercising. It's not gonna hurt your heart. You've got a good heart."

"Not as bad as I remember them?" Does that just happen? He said the two blockages are so mild that they surely can't be a problem. They were only 30% and 50% blocked.
Do blocked arteries improve on their own? I don't know. But I do know this.... I had many people praying, and the results are good. And I also know that I have many friends and family that love me. And that's a good feeling.

This past Sunday, our preacher talked about "authentic community," and how the church is to be like it was in the book of Acts, caring for each other, meeting each other's needs. I want to say thank you to my authentic community. And I want to say thank you to my God.