Monday, March 8

Jeff shares some thoughts and pics -

It’s almost too cliché, the idea that life can change in the blink of an eye. But that is exactly what happened to me last Thursday morning. Life moving on my schedule - then bang - my life was sucked into a vortex where it seemed to be spinning out of control. One second, I’m driving the streets of Atlanta, the next there’s glass and metal and spinning and pain and nothing.

“Are you OK?”, someone screams through the window as I fade back to nothingness. “Can you hear me?” pries its way through the haze to my consciousness as someone looms at what was once my van window. I capture a thought in the midst of this chaos “Wow God, I didn’t see this coming, but if this is a detour in my ministry and mission, I accept it. I’m ready and willing!”

To some this may sound fake and pious – but this is really me. I love God. I clearly understand that my existence is about reflecting his glory to the world and inviting others into a relationship with him. I have chosen to spend most of my adult life in positions that enable me to help encourage others down this same path.

As I drift back in, “Sir, what’s your name? Stay with us!” Over the next twenty-five minutes some of Atlanta’s best worked to keep me stable as they cut me out of what was once my Mercury Villager. Jaws of Life pry the door, cutters slice through metal as it is finally pulled back to where my broken body can be pulled from the crumble.

“This is what my loving Father knew was best for me?” The inability to do the ministry I had just begun with people I am falling in love with and love ministering to - weeks of pain and rehabilitation. How does a loving father do such a thing? One of the interesting things about being a proclaimer and preacher of God’s word is what I call – “God coming for our words”. It’s like a - “You said it, Now live it” - kind of thing. Was it an accident that just a few weeks prior I had spoken on Isaiah 42:16? Out of my own lips I had proclaimed the truth that the real adventure in the life of a true Christ follower is that we are not in charge. We do not take the lead –that’s why we are Christ-followers. “He will lead us”, Isaiah says, we -the blind, down unfamiliar paths. This path was definitely unfamiliar. In order for Him to turn darkness into light and make rough places smooth, the darkness and the rough must first come. But the promise is the kicker “I will not forsake them”.

As the metal and plastic of the dash hydraulically creaks away from my legs and I am moved from the remains of my van to the waiting ambulance my numb legs aren’t really even a thought. Air. Breath. Pain. I was just starting to understand some of my new challenges. Living! On impact my sternum and 9 ribs were broken. At the same time my heart was bruised and traumatized causing some erratic and troubling problems. The professionalism of the Atlanta EMT’s and the trauma group at Grady Memorial cannot be over stated. Thank you for your training, hard work, and continuing desire to learn new and better ways to mend these earthly bodies God has given us. But broken I was.

I thought the real issues were the bruised heart, broken sternum, 9 broken ribs, 2 broken vertebrae in my back, broken tibia and fibula in my leg – but I was about to learn I had even bigger problems. Remember how quick I was to embrace this new detour in my life? I started immediately to plan how to let my light shine in this new ministry of the hurt and healing. Smile. Say ”Thank you”. Be grateful. Talk about God with others. Sounds good right?

Maybe I hit my head harder than I remember, or maybe the bruised heart was more than just physical. It’s true that my mission is to shine the light of my Savior to the world around me. That means any world that my loving father chooses to place me into, but how quickly I forgot that the light that will change others cannot be manufactured or contrived from a list. Whether I am working in a factory, pastoring a church, teaching school, or retired and spending my days in leisure, my light source doesn’t come from a plan but a person. I must be in the presence of Christ daily. He fills me to overflowing as I reflect on all he has done for me, that puts me in the place I need to be. The funny thing is, when I am there, nothing else really matters that much and everything else seems to make a little more sense. Compared to all that he has done for me – well, there is no comparison. Hey, it’s not about me and it’s not about you. Let’s all find his presence daily and shine!