10 years ago today, my life changed forever, because 10 years ago today, during the 4th quarter of a local high school football game, my mother looked at my father and told him she was sorry just moments before a brain aneurism left her speechless and hospitalized. 3 days later, she was dead.
That one moment set in motion a chain of events that are still hard to wrap my mind around, which is one reason why the year from hell that followed isn’t in book form…yet. Suffice it here to say that 20 days after my mom passed, my brother had, as well, and my world was upside-down.
And that was only the beginning.
This was a moment that impacted every moment I have lived since. It changed how I see people, how I teach people, how I love and lead people. It changed the filter of my worldview from “Christian” and “Non-Christian” to “hurting” and “not hurting yet.” It changed how I prioritize, it changed how I pastor, it changed how I preach.
That day changed everything in ways that I still do not even comprehend one decade later.
I’m not looking to write something brilliant in one post about something that was so life-altering, but I wouldn’t mind leaving you with this one thought, which could quite possibly become the opening paragraph in the book that will be written about the time that I met Jesus on the worst day of my life. I’d love your reactions to it.
There are moments that change us. They change us because they stop us, even if it is only long enough for us to think, to hurt, to cry. They can’t be stopped, or in most cases, even controlled. They come and go as they please, and leave us stuck in places we would have never believed…wondering if we will ever move, laugh, or dance again? They seem like periods, but they are more like commas, something that my 8th-grade English teacher said I didn’t understand. But I understand them better now, because one day I stared into the eyes of my brother as he died.
From time to time over the next month or so, I’ll post more thoughts, memories, and ramblings that have come over the years. For now, let me simply tell you one of the important things that I learned in the middle of that time: Jesus doesn’t run from pain, or from those who are in it.
He runs to the pain and carries us through it.
I received this same kind of BLESSING two years ago, when Linda passed, a week after her ex-husband (William and Ronnie’s dad)… SO MANY changes to Life and Faith and Love and Sorrow and… I KNOW that these Blessings of 2011 have made me stronger, and maybe better, but I would not wish them on anyone else. Only GOD knows when a person is ready for this kind of Blessing.
So true, Roch, so true. It’s odd that the most profound things are so often learned in the hardest places. Praying for you this holiday season!
you are so crazy and
Might as well let that book roll now brother….sounds like the time is here. Love ya buddy, joel harrison
Like I told Wendy, one paragraph down, only a couple more thousand to go. Thanks for the encouragement.
I have always wished to go back and change the things in my life I found most painful, but realize more and more those experiences that make me who I am. It’s funny to see those times as blessings instead of a curse, but they were. Thank you for sharing the experiences that make you- YOU.
Well put, my friend! Especially the part where He runs to the pain and carries us through it!
I can tell you, it leaves me wanting to hear just that….how you met Jesus in that place. Write.more.please.
This was very encouraging Paul!