5-Minute Trekker's JournalSample

A DESCENT INTO HELL

Listen to what Eliphaz, a friend of Job, is saying: ''Amid disquieting dreams in the night ... a spirit glided past my face .... A form stood before my eyes and I heard a hushed voice" Ooh 4:15, 16). He is filled with fear, making his bones shake. Eliphaz came face to face with spiritual reality, which reminded me of Howard Storm and his story as it is recounted in his bestselling book, My Descent into Death: A Second Chance at Life.

One summer day in Paris in the mid-1980s, Howard Storm became violently ill and was taken to a hospital, where he appeared to die. He tells of rising from his own body, looking around the room, and hearing voices beckoning him to follow. He is persuaded to leave the hospital room but begins to feel a desire to turn back. However, the voices become insistent, then vicious, and finally violent. They start devouring him, but deep within, he has enough strength to call out in desperation to Jesus with prayer, begging for help. Suddenly, light appears, and Howard returns to his bed and life.

Howard began that hot summer day as an atheist; he emerged shaken and changed forever. The modern mind refuses to consider the reality of both heaven and hell, but Howard's compelling story of death and miraculous rebirth should prompt the skeptics to reconsider their assumptions.

Journal your thoughts and feelings on today's readings.

Spend time in prayer about what you wrote down.