2012 INTERVIEW in TULSA, OK
Karol: Marc, you quote your son, Josh in your book. He writes with a strong belief system that is very refreshing. He talks about life being "a gift," that, "no one can live your life for you," and that he, "wants to be friends with Life." It's really powerful stuff. The book really made me think.
Karol: Josh was a real king. I called him, "the King of compassion." Talk about someone changing your life. His love and caring changed my life.
Karol: Yes, you said all the suffering he went through shaped him to be a very beautiful man. You had your own suffering. I read the back of your book and I quote: "Marc Swift was miraculously healed after being given five more years to live following a brain tumor operation in 1977." Can you tell us about it?
Marc: Yes, Jesus is amazing. He completely healed my brain two years after I had a brain tumor operation. The doctors had given me only five more years to live. That was back in 1977. Here I am now. That completely changed my life around.
Karol: Yes, that would change my world around! So from the years of 1977 to 2008 when you began to restore your relationship with your son, Josh, what did you do?
Marc: I ended up having a fairly dysfunctional marriage, which was mostly contentious and undermined a lot of my efforts. Josh wrote about it brilliantly in a short story in the book: "Ah, the flavor of my family. Nutty, spiced heavily with resentment and hostility. With an aftertaste of pure insanity." That's pretty much how it was.
Karol: Yet, during that time of 25 years, you operated a successful auto detail shop out of your house called Mr. Polish Detail.
Marc: I always felt very responsible for taking care of my family and I was really good at detailing cars and the Lord was with me.
Karol: Yes, Josh talks about how hard you worked for them and that you never lacked anything material.
Marc: I was able to pass on this craft to my sons. I started teaching Josh how to detail when he was five! It did us all three a lot of good to work together. There were so many things I wanted to pass on to my sons. We had all kinds of talks during that hour or hour and a half we spent together. No matter how difficult things were, this time was always solid because it was my business, and I had a deadline to meet and I required workmanship of excellence. They naturally rose to my level of expectation and they always did amazing work, even faster than me sometimes!
Karol: What made you start writing about Josh?
Marc: Just when things were really good between us, couldn't be better, and Josh was the happiest he'd ever been, he died in his sleep, at the age of 24.
Karol: I'm sorry. I cannot imagine how difficult that must have been for you.
Marc: It was extremely painful. Yet he died at such perfect moment, when he was so happy. And he went straight to be with God his heavenly Father. I felt this peace when I found him. It was so strong. Stronger than concrete. I've never known anything like it. I couldn't even get upset, not for more than a third of a second. And the glory of God was all over the room, all over the house. And there's more. It's all in the book. When you go through something like that you just see death differently. You see life differently.
Karol: That conversation you have with Josh in Heaven was as real to me as these recent movies about Jesus and Heaven. It's like, "So this is who God is?!!" So merciful, so welcoming, with such open arms. Great love. Yes, you must keep telling this story.
Marc: Thank you, Karol.
Karol: Thank you Marc. "To Life!" as Josh said.
Marc: "To Life!" Karol.
