Steve Sjogren - The Day I Died

2006 Steve Sjogren

Published by Bethany House Publishers
11400 Hampshire Avenue South
Bloomington, Minnesota 55438
www.bethanyhouse.com

Bethany House Publishers is a division of
Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
www.bakerpublishinggroup.com

Bethany House Publishers edition published 2014

ISBN 978-1-4412-6718-4

Previously published by Regal Books

Ebook edition originally created 2013

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are paraphrased by the author. The chapter and verse for each quotation cited is listed in the endnotes. Other versions used are

THE MESSAGEScripture taken from THE MESSAGE. Copyright by Eugene H. Peterson, 1993, 1994, 1995. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

NIVScripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

This book is dedicated to my best friend, Dr. Osborne Richards, senior pastor of New Life Outreach Church. Your church is an amazing place that is changing lives every day of the year. When I was in the hospital and so depressed and out of it, I asked that no one come to visit me. But you came every single day with a big smile on your face and acted as if I had said nothing. You prayed for me to be made well by Gods power. Thank you for not listening to me! I am better because of it.

Contents

Todd Hunter

Everybody wants to have at least a hint about life after deathsomething like a movie preview would be nice. We know that there must be more; we just cant conceive of what it might be. Steve Sjogren got a glimpse the hard way. During and after his devastating medical accident, he discovered, as he reveals in this book, something we all want to know: How does death relate to life?

I have enjoyed friendship with Steve for 25 years. During this time, I have seen live and in person the before-and-after pictures. Steves story gives us a sneak-peek into questions such as, Can we be alive apart from our body? What does non-bodied existence feel like? Is it safe? Is it secure? Are we aware of life going on around us? Does personhood really depend on matterflesh, blood, heart and brain? What about the big scary thing: GOD? When we die, do we sense or know a supreme beings presence?

If what Steve discovered is true for all of us, then the material world indeed does depend upon something even more realGodfor its existence. This God is perfectly capable of being our God, even if we dont have a physical gallbladder, brain or heart. He is a spiritual, non-embodied, personal Realitythe most real thing in the world.

Steve didnt make this breakthrough the way scientists would discover something through experimentation or the way monks would reach a deeper level of understanding through prayer. He learned it the way that key lessons in life often come: His accident mugged and bag-snatched his previous worldview. No one chooses to go through a painful crisis. However, it is consistently true that people who face near-death or death-with-resuscitation experiences come out the other side as wiser people.

How does experiencing near-death change a person? Here is one possibility: What if in death we are not isolated from the world but see it as it actually is? Paul, who wrote much of the New Testament, gave us memorable words in 1 Corinthians 13 (called the love passage) that are often quoted at weddings. You have probably heard them: Love is patient, love is kind (v. 4, NIV). What is less known, but equally important, comes later in that passage:

We dont yet see things clearly. Were squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it wont be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! Well see it all then, see it as clearly as God sees us (v. 12, THE MESSAGE).

Paul was referring to the revelation of God that will come to everyone either in life or in death. This breakthrough into clearness is the backhanded gift Steve was given. In death he saw things as they are. He witnessed what was really going on. This is true because, being made in Gods image, we are not human beings having an occasional spiritual experience; rather, we are spiritual beings having a temporary human experience. Steve, as his spirit left his body, got in contact with Reality in a new and profound way. It changed him, and reading about his journey will change you as well.

I have a recurring thought that hit me again while reading The Day I Died. Evangelistsme includedoften ask, If you died tonight, where would you go [meaning heaven or hell]? I wonder, if one were seeking to align his or her day-to-day life with Reality in the way that Steve describes it, if it would be more valuable to ask life-based questions such as: What if you knew you were going to live tomorrowand in fact for a long, long timewhat would you do differently? What if you knew you were going to live forever? Who would you follow? From whom would you learn to do life? Around what or who would you organize the daily activities of your life?

Bicyclist Lance Armstrongs yellow bracelets encourage us to LiveStrong. To do so requires the assurance that we are safe and sound throughout time and eternitywhether in the body or out. From the new angle that God, the cosmos and each of us are more real in death, not less, Steve shares his inspiring and life-shaping message. He shows us how to trust and follow God in life and to do it in such a way that the people around us will experience it as humble grace and for their good.

Todd Hunter

Executive Director

Alpha USA

Today is a magnificent early winter day. Its crisp outside and the squirrels in my backyard are chasing one another through a big hollow tree. The red ones run after the less aggressive grey ones. Without a care in the world, they never seem to tire. Its great entertainmentbetter than satellite TV!

Its hard to believe that just a few years ago, on a day just as lovely as this one, all hell was about to break loose in a small suburban hospital just up the road. Its even harder to believe that I was the one on an operating table and the object of this life-and-death struggle.

Doctors had previously repaired my kneesboth of them. Although those incisions were painful, they were necessary and rather anti-climatic. Now it was time to remove my gall bladder, but this surgery seemed to have a pall about it. For days leading up to what would turn out to be the ugliest day of my life, I had worried about my impending hospital visit. Something just seemed wrong. I had even considered taking a magic marker and writing TAKE OUT GALL BLADDER ONLY across my abdominal area. I didnt want the surgeon to mistake me for the guy who was due for a leg amputation.

As a rule, I am allergic to mornings, but the early hours the day of my surgery were worse than usual. As my wife, Janie, drove me the few miles from our house to the hospital, I felt strangely sick to my stomach. As we got closer, I had second, third and fourth thoughts about going through with the surgery. Deep down, I must have realized that I hadnt done my homework about the risks of the operation, the surgeons record or the hospitals reputation. I know better nowbut Im getting ahead of myself.