Author and former atheist-turned-Christian Lee Strobel says in a released excerpt from his new book The Case for Grace that God healed his debilitating illness.
Charisma News reports Strobel had a routine heart procedure just before his 60th birthday, but the surgery caused complications for his kidneys, and pneumonia set in in his lungs. He also had a rare allergic reaction to a medication prescribed to him.
Worse of all, his blood sodium level had fallen drastically, leading to swelling in his brain. He started hallucinating.
“An ominous and malevolent presence filled the house. My heart raced,” he wrote. “I was descending into hell.
“The room was cold and damp. I felt suffocated by dread and hopelessness and despair. Menacing creatures began to gather at the periphery of the room and slowly inch toward me, taking their time to heighten the fear. Snakes and demons slithered on the floor; I wanted to lift my feet to escape them, but I couldn't move.”
His blood sodium levels continued to fall and Strobel said he worried that his wife was leaving him, his friends were abandoning him and that police were looking for him.
“I wish I could say that my instinctive reaction when my mind became unhinged was to seek Jesus, but it wasn't,” he said. “As my brain was squeezed against the inside of my skull, my irrationality increased. I was overwrought with emotional turmoil over my perceived situation.”
Publication date: March 13, 2015