If you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans.

Don Piper would certainly agree with that old adage: "If I had spent my whole life as the pastor of a small church in Pasadena, Texas, that would have been fine with me."

But God had other ideas.

On January 18, 1989, Piper was returning home from a conference in Galveston, Texas, when his car was struck head-on by a tractor-trailer truck, killing him instantly.

Ninety minutes after the accident, Dick Onerecker, a pastor who happened upon the scene, felt led by God to pray for the dead man. He did so, and Piper immediately returned to life. But for 90 minutes, as his lifeless body lay inside his car, Piper claims to have been in heaven.

Piper's recollections of heavenly glory have since been chronicled in 90 Minutes in Heaven, a book which has sold nearly 2 million copies and become a long-time fixture on the New York Times bestseller list.

The author thinks the book's popularity comes "because it addresses many of the questions people have about life, and life after death. People want to know if there really is a heaven, and if so, what is it like? I also believe that people want assurance that there is a reason for suffering and grief.

"And I can say from a personal perspective, that as a pastor, when I am standing beside a person who is suffering with terrible injuries and may be facing death, and when loved ones are having to deal with that, it's a lot easier for me to say, 'I know how you feel because I've been there. I know what it's like to be in your shoes.'"

Indeed.

"It was like nothing I could have ever imagined," Piper recalls. "When I was killed, I was immediately transported to heaven's gate. It was an instantaneous thing."

Heavenly excursion
Piper refers to his heavenly detour as a "smorgasbord for the senses," being embraced and welcomed by friends he had known throughout his life, angelic choirs, and even a "pearly" gate—sort of.

"Although I didn't have a body as we normally think of one, I didn't see a single person who I didn't know," he explains. "There were relatives, there were friends who had died in high school, there were some of my teachers—there were people I had known all my life who had gone to glory. They were smiling, embracing me, and welcoming me.

"Then, as I looked over their heads, I could see the looming gate. To say it was beautiful would be a serious understatement. It wasn't 'pearly' as people say, it was more like it had been sculpted from mother-of-pearl. Then there was the light, a light I couldn't fathom as a human being, and there was an angelic choir that seemed to be singing every praise song conceivable all at once."

But almost as soon as Piper's heavenly excursion began, it ended, thanks to the power of answered prayer.

"My first conscious memory was 'What a Friend We Have in Jesus.' Here I was, in this crushed vehicle, staring at a tarp that had been thrown over me, holding someone's hand, and I'm singing a song. What in the heck is going on?"

Onerecker had prayed that Piper would have no internal injuries and no head injuries. Then he started to sing hymns, and Piper started singing with him.

Piper jokes that he returned to earth "by popular demand," although practically every bone in his body was either broken or shattered.

Piper was transported to the nearest trauma hospital in Houston, where he spent nearly four months recovering from his injuries. His left arm and leg were almost completely severed, and had to be surgically repaired and reattached.

"I wanted to go back"
"I spent so much time in such terrible pain, and having seen glory, I wanted to go back," Piper says. "The trouble was so many people were trying to help me, and praying for me, that I realized I was here because people were asking God for me to be here."

Piper adds that overcoming adversity and finding positives in difficult situations are also central themes of his book, also accounting for its popularity.

"I think it's a natural thing for people who have gone through troubles to look for some kind of meaning behind it," he says. "Sometimes there is a meaning that we can gain some insight from. Other times, we probably won't know the meaning, at least not in this life. Either way, that's when it's good to know that there is a loving God for us to lean on."

Today, Piper travels nearly two-thirds of every year, giving talks about his experiences, speaking to audiences of practically every type.

Although he still lives with considerable pain and disability—Piper has had 34 surgeries—his story continues to evolve. For example, shortly after Piper began telling his story publicly, he was sought out by the man who prayed for him that fateful day.

"He came up to me after I had given my talk," Piper said. "He told me that there was one inaccuracy about my story. That kind of startled me because I have always tried to be as accurate and honest when relating my story as possible.

"But he explained that although I said he was holding my hand while he was praying, he couldn't reach my hand because of the way my body was laying. Nobody could reach my hand. And when I told him that I could distinctly remember the heat and pressure of someone holding my hand, he said that although he believed what I said, he wanted me to know that it wasn't an earthly hand."

Warm reception
"People are very receptive to my message," Piper says. "I believe that's because they want to know that heaven is real and that they and their loved ones who are gone will be there."

That's the subject of Piper's latest book, Heaven Is Real, a collection of meditations relating from his experiences, each one telling of overcoming life's obstacles.

"Heaven Is Real is the book I really wanted to write before I started 90 Minutes in Heaven," Piper says. "Why? When I started to write, people wanted to know what heaven is like and about what happened to me. The book I wanted to write was aimed more at using my case to show how problems really can be overcome and that we can learn from these experiences."

Piper goes on to say that heaven is indeed a tangible place.

"When Jesus left, he didn't say, 'I've gone to prepare a concept or an idea,'" Piper says. "He said, 'I've gone to prepare a place' (John 14:2). A real place. That's the idea I want to impress on people. Heaven really is real. Heaven really is a place, and it's more incredible than anyone can comprehend.

"I know. I've been there."

Michael W. Michelsen Jr. is a freelance writer in Riverside, California.

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