ANGEL WITH A NEW HEART

We had been going downhill backwards, as my friend and traveling cyclo-colleague Rick would say.  That means, of course, the opposite--climbing--that began in the basin of southern Arizona and increasingly moved us to higher elevations from 1,000 feet above the desert floor to over 8,000 feet to the southern rim of the Grand Canyon.

We had just crested a mountain and now looked forward to a hair-blowing downhill run at eight percent grade.  Midway down more than our hair blew; a front tire on one of our bikes blew and popped throwing the rider off the bike and onto the rocky roadside.

We assessed the damage to bike and body. When you are launched airborne at 15-17 miles per hour onto rocks and debris there is residual damage.   No broken bones, per se, but torn skin, bruises, and blood.

Cars continued to pass us on their way to see the grandeur of the Canyon.  But one guy stopped, got out, and ran over to us beside our dismantled bike.  You okay? he asked with deep concern.  What can I do to help?  Then he disappeared and returned with his only bottle of water.  Here, take this.

Can I give you a lift to Valle?  Before we had fully decided, Randall was already rearranging his truck to put our bikes into the back of his truck.

Only as we scrunched into his cab did we learn of Randall's incredible story.  Randall is a survivor though, not of cancer, but of a failed heart.  Rheumatic fever had claimed his first heart.  A mechanical heart had given him a few more days of life--"a stop gap heart" as Randall referred to it.  Finally, his turn came to receive a new heart.

That was two years ago.  He now rides a bicycle and when we met, Randall was training for his first triathlon.

Did faith play a role in your recovery?  

Randall couldn't say enough about how God had been with him through the valley of the shadow of death.  When was so sick that he just wanted life to end, God was present with him and sustained him.  He now has a new life, a deep faith, and is present for two daughters and son and wonderful wife.

Though battered and bruised, Rick and I took note of a real hero who discovered God in a failed heart and new hope.  He was at our moment of need an angel . . . with a new heart.