MIRACLE: an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs. Do you believe in miracles? Do you allow that miracles could happen today—or did such phenomena end with the Apostolic Age? With our Sovereign God in control of our daily lives, could He or would He allow one of His chosen ones to briefly visit heaven and then return to earth?
As a well-respected pastor the Rev. Don Piper was used to giving comfort to his flock. Then came January 1989 when he was in a fatal traffic accident. Declared dead on the pavement in Texas, this 38-year-old pastor became the subject of a friend’s fervent prayers at the crash scene. After ninety minutes Piper was brought back to life and rushed to TIRR Memorial Hermann Hospital and Trauma Center in Houston. This may sound familiar as this is the same complex where Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was brought for rehabilitation following the mass shooting in Tucson in January 2011. With numerous internal injuries plus the likelihood of losing both legs and one arm, Piper faced many months of surgeries and rehabilitation—if he were even to live. But, he was indeed alive.
In this book’s early chapters the author briefly describes what he experienced in heaven during the hour-and-a-half in which he lay dead in the wreckage on the highway. He doesn’t dwell on extensive descriptions of heaven—of who he met, or of the music he experienced. Many years later “I still get frustrated describing what heaven was like, because I can’t begin to put into words what it looked like, sounded like, and felt like. It was perfect, and I knew I had no needs and never would again. I didn’t even think of earth or those left behind.”[p.33]
Much of the book explains the healing and rehabilitation process that Piper experienced. Rather the author chooses to focus on lessons learned on how to live henceforth to the glory of God and on how to impart those lessons to us. One lesson he learned early on was how to receive help from others: allow others to serve, to give of themselves to those who are hurting. He learned from a friend, “these people care about you so much, and you just can’t image how much they love you, and you’re taking that gift away from them”—let them show it! [p.93-94]
As he gained strength he gradually learned that he had a new-found purpose for living: reaching out to the distressed and hurting, telling the Good News to the spiritually lost.
Over the next 18 months, as his horribly mangled body began mending, he came to realize that he needed spiritual mending as well. The Greek word pneuma means spirit or breath or wind. “Just as it was necessary to re-inflate my lungs to overcome pneumonia, I needed the breath of God to help me overcome the depression of my spirit.”[p102] With well over a year of hospital care, “I began to see depression set in. The longer I lay in bed, the more convinced I became that I had nothing to look forward to. Heaven had been perfect, so beautiful and joyful. I wanted to be released from pain and go back.” [p.79] Meanwhile, his friends, family, and congregation continued to pray. They petitioned the Sovereign God to heal and bring him back to health to further serve them and glorify God.
Written from the perspective of fifteen years later, Piper outlines the medical procedures and his strong emotions in dealing with getting his body working again. From a patient’s perspective, we learn about the experimental Ilizarov device being used to stretch his damaged bones even as it grows new bone to replace damaged parts. We learn of the author’s perspective of his friends and their well-meaning, though sometimes not helpful, hospital visits. All of this becomes obvious as we walk with him through all of this. We need to learn to deal with our own questions as we cry out in our own anguish, “WHY, God?
Once Don Piper regained strength, and a degree of assisted mobility, he began to realize purpose for the Lord having sent him back to earth. He found purpose in giving comfort to the needy, in giving first-hand knowledge of heaven to the doubters, in giving inspiration as he gave testimony of his continued faith in the redeeming work of Jesus. This is the story of the Rev. Don Piper finding purpose for his having returned to earth. This book is not for those simply curious about heaven—the author found that human language simply cannot explain what he experienced. This book is for those wrestling with doubt and depression. This book is for those filled with questions of why, why, why! Not all of our ‘why’ questions are answered, but we learn that every day has purpose!
~review by Dan F. Bloem
90 Minutes In Heaven by Don Piper with Cecil Murphey [published by Fleming H. Revell division of Baker Publishing, Grand Rapids, MI; c.2004] A copy is in Trinity church library .