One sunny day in January of 1999, Mary Neal died. As she tells it, she was kayaking down the Fuy River in a remote region in southern Chile when her kayak veered off course and she and it were plunged down a steep waterfall.
Worse still, she got wedged under a rock. This combined with the tremendous force of the waterfall rendered her helpless. For a whole 30 minutes she was submerged in 8-10 feet of water. Once her companions finally were able to extricate her, she was long gone.
As you may have guessed, Neal is among the millions of individuals worldwide who claim to have undergone “near-death” or “after-death” experiences.
Curiously, Neal describes her experience underwater as remarkably peaceful, unlike what she had always imagined drowning would be like. There was no room for fear, she says. There she found herself uttering the simple phrase, “Lord, thy will be done,” words she had said many times before, only now she really meant it. Whatever God had in store for her, she was completely open to. Then, she says, her spirit was released to the heavens.
Continue reading “A Sermon: “An Absolute State of Gratitude””