Jack also suffered heart problems.
In 1988, he had a heart attack and had double bypass surgery.
"When I had the heart attack, it brought realization, of
really what the beauty of the barren trees are,"
he said. "When
I got out of the hospital, it was February and cold and blustery, not
a leaf in sight. But it
was the most beautiful thing I'd seen."
That same year, a forklift ran over him crushing his right foot.
He lost parts of three toes and had to have skin grafts on the
foot. In many ways, the
accident was tougher than open-heart surgery, Jack recalled. "I was in the hospital 16 days with the heart attack and
nine days with the bypass, but I was in 23 days with the foot, then
went back for seven days for the skin graft.
He has had two neck surgeries and two knee
replacements. "I'm
all screwed together," he
laughs. But through it
all, he said, he has found a lasting peace with God.
"I am totally comfortable with my life," he said.
Jack said he remembers lying in the hospital bed when he had
the heart attack, counting the tiles on the ceiling to calculate how
big the room was. He didn't
know it at the time, but members of three congregations were praying
for him simultaneously. As
he lay there counting the tiles, he heard the Lord saying that for every
tile in the ceiling, a group of people was praying for him.
Jack's faith has always been an important part
of his life, but over time his relationship with God has grown richer.
I was saved and sprinkled when I was about 12," he said.
"The actual experience I can't remember. My conception of salvation is you accept Him as Savior, but
it takes awhile for you to treat Him as Lord.
And there was a vast difference in the age that that happened
with me."
When Jack was about 34, he was going to First
Baptist Church. "I got in such conviction that I couldn't sleep nights,"
he said. "And one
Sunday morning, I just decided I have to give it all to Him.
So, then when I went to the altar - I hadn't cried a tear in
years - and I just bawled like a baby.
"It made a change in my life - the way I spoke, thought,
and hopefully acted," he continued.
"My attitude toward my wife and the children I had at the
time changed. And the way
I treated the people who work for me."
Jack said he didn't receive the infilling of
the Holy Spirit until he was about 50.
"That's when I really made the commitment to give Him my
all." "The changes are not all at once, they come over
the years," he said. Jack said he decided to quit racing
go-carts, despite being at the peak of his performance, because it took
him away from church about 13 Sundays a year.
"I was teaching Sunday school, and I said, 'You don't say
one thing and act another way,' so I gave it up at that time."
He is a member of Highland Baptist church, where he was a deacon and
is still an elder.
Without hesitation, Jack names his favorite
Bible verse, John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that He gave
his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish,
but have everlasting life." Another verse that has come to
have special meaning for him is Psalms 37:25:
"I have been young, and now am old; yet I have never seen
the righteous forsaken or his seed go begging for bread."
