DIVINE INTERVENTION: a term used for a miracle caused by God’s active involvement in the human world
Might sound crazy to some, but I have felt. I am certain of it and to try to describe the feeling is almost impossible. He was with me that snowy night in January 2011 and I will never forget those intensely powerful few seconds that I felt His presence. He was there for the defining moment of my life, but I am not saying that He has left me since because I know he is still guiding my life. I know on that night he was present and he had the final say on whether I would live or die.
Driving 90 mph down some snowy highway in rural Indiana my tire blew out. My car did a perfect 180 and went backward for about five seconds. I let go of the wheel. I had no sense of fear. Suddenly my car spun straight back around and at that moment I felt His presence. Like I said it’s impossible to describe. I felt this force come over me that told me that I was not alone. There was some sort of presence that was so powerful within my car for that moment that made me feel as if I was invincible.
Maybe not even 1 out of 100 people would have lived in the accident that came next. It is an absolute miracle that you are reading these words today and not reminiscing on the person that I was before.
I happened to pass the state troopers office where two of them were walking in for the night just as I flew by them. That was not by chance. That had been planned. If I had not gone by them at that exact moment then no one would have been there to save me. I died that night, but God gave me a second chance. It was the defining moment of my life and I am actually thankful for all that I had to endure because this was all a part of His plan.
Do not get me wrong, I was angry with Him that first year, but all that I went through led me to find my purpose and gave me an opportunity to thank Him and start to give back because I was given that second chance.
Is it normal to wake up happy and excited about each day and to remain in that mindset each and every day? Maybe it is especially abnormal for someone like me who has had to struggle with mental health issues my whole life as well as paralysis for over six years now. Sounds like a recipe for misery for most, but not for me.
For only being 30 years old I feel like I have been through more than many people experience in a lifetime. I suffered from periods of depression since I was 12. I have completely lost my mind on two separate occasions. I let drugs take over my life. I have had severe spending problems. I have made some terrible decisions. To top it all off, I will most likely be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of my life. Would I change a thing? Without any hesitation, the answer is no.
I am thankful for the tremendous amount of adversity that I have faced. At many points before my accident, I felt like I was a tremendous failure. However, that is not exactly true. I still had a lot of success despite some of those terrible life choices that I made. Success and failure go hand-in-hand. They both pressure us to do more with our lives. Although I feel failure is a much bigger driving force. If you are always told that you’re successful then why would you push yourself so hard to be better because you already know you are great? I feel that you can learn much more from failure. Failure makes you want to be better the next time around.
I am thankful for all of the adversity that I have had to face because having to overcome adversity has allowed me to find myself and to make me prove just what I made of.
So I am left here with two legs that won’t move and only one functional hand. Above all else, I am left with a perfectly functional mind. A mind that that has been tested to the point where I thought there was nothing left to live for. Now I think back to those darker days and I just remember that the worst is over and I have climbed out of that pit that I thought was bottomless. I am reminded by my past of those dark days and remembrance of those dark days makes me want to live each day in the present with nothing but a positive outlook on everything that is to come. Not everything is going to play out perfectly, but after all that I have faced I feel that I am ready to take on any obstacle that comes my way.
If ever I question the future I always think back to that time that I felt that presence. God has a plan for me and I have just been running with it. My story has been shared with tens or maybe hundreds of thousands of people and often times people reach out to me and tell them that I have given them hope. I have had to make significant sacrifices, but in return, I can make the lives of so many other people better. That is a sacrifice that I am willing to live with.
Give me a microphone, pass on my book, give me an outlet to reach as many people as I can or just give me an individual to work with and my whole goal is just to improve the lives of anyone who is struggling. Money does not buy happiness. To know that you helped change the direction of a person’s life is worth far more than any amount of money. So everything that I have gone through has made me feel like a very very wealthy man. I have God to thank for that and I know that he is far from done from helping me write the rest of my story.
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