Dealing with tragedy

Phil Stoddart of Lowestoft, United Kingdom, would have every right to feel bad, mad and sad about life. He lost two of his daughters, Claire and Jenny, in 2006 when they were hit by a drunk driver, Ben Morphey, while they were coming home from a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert.

Instead, Stoddart, a teacher, wrote a book called "A12 to Heaven" about his experiences dealing with the tragedy. According to an article in The Advertiser, God spoke to Stoddart while he was in the hospital on the night of the tragedy:

'Jenny was on a life-support machine and we knew in our hearts that she was gone. It was at that point God spoke to me,' said Stoddart. 'I was told there were three things I had to do and he was saying 'these are essential for your recovery'.'

These three instructions given to Mr Stoddart were not to blame God, not to blame himself and not to blame Morphey.

In addition to writing the book, Stoddart also gives talks about his experiences. He said that following God's guidelines has helped him from being consumed by bitterness.

Living life to the fullest

In 2001, the Rev. Doug Brushell was facing a long recovery after a double lung transplant. According to an article in The Oneida Daily Dispatch, Brushell, who had a fatal lung disease, was lucky to live long enough to have the operation:

'They didn't expect that I was going to live long enough to receive a lung transplant,' he said, but in July of that year, Brushell said that God spoke to him through scripture. When he turned to John 11:4, which says 'This sickness is not unto death but for the Glory of God, that the son of God may be glorified by it,' he said that he knew that there was going to be more to it all than what he had been told.

At that point, Brushell's name had just been added to the transplant list. It was going to be a long wait, and he ended up suffering a lung collapse in November 2000. He received his transplant in time, though. And being a longtime lover of music, he decided to live life to the fullest by recording an album. His recently released album, "The Legacy", features his entire family.

Fireproof

I recently saw the movie "Fireproof". While the acting in the film isn't superb, the movie's messages are.

The movie really hit home with me -- it shows marriage in a true light. In fact, my marriage currently is at what would be called "Day One" in the movie.

"Fireproof" inspired me to buy "The Love Dare" book. I hope that my following "The Love Dare" book has the same beneficial effect on my marriage that it had on Caleb's marriage in the movie.

Volunteering to plant a vegetable garden

Jamie Dunn, an Australian media personality, recently wrote on his blog about encountering a lovely elderly lady at the hardware store. The woman was planning on putting in a vegetable garden on a hot 35-degrees Celsius day (95 degrees Fahrenheit).

Dunn was urged by God to help out by hearing God say, "I want you to put the vegie garden in for this stranger, Jamie."

Dunn was faithful and humorously recounts his hot, sweaty day on his blog.

God continues to guide my career

In Oct. 2007, I wrote about how God guides my career. Well, He continues to be faithful. My boss at the financial services organization left in March of this year. I applied for his position -- I was excited for an opportunity to advance my career. The senior vice president of communications interviewed me for the position, but said that she didn't think that I was ready. That was pretty disappointing.

Then this fall, the head of a local public relations firm recruited me to be a vice president at her firm. I accepted this excellent opportunity, and I start on Oct. 20.

Thank you, God! You are faithful. Given the way that the stock market has been going, it's perfect timing.

Learnings from the Heart of a Warrior Advance

I had an excellent weekend at the Heart of a Warrior Advance at the end of September. The weekend included some great speakers, but my two key learnings came during the athletic competitions.

The first activity that I competed in was archery. When all the people who had signed up for archery arrived at the target area, no one had shown up to organize our competition. For some reason, all of the participants were looking at me to coordinate it. So I decided to take action and organize an archery competition that included three rounds for the nine participants. I was successful! From that experience, I felt, "Wow! I am a leader."

The other learning took place during a game of pickup football. Now, I was neither the youngest person nor the fastest person on the team. When my team was on offense, I was being covered for a while -- until the other team realized that passes were not coming my way. Then they stopped covering me. At that point, the quarterback huddled us together and said, "What are you seeing out there?"

"Well, obviously, they're not covering me," I replied.

"Are you ready?"

"Yes," I said.

During the next play, I ran down to the one yard line. I was open, he passed to me, and I scored a touchdown! From that I learned, "I have what it takes."

Incidentally, the theme for the Heart of a Warrior Advance was "Are you ready?" I surely am.