Learning to embrace our stories and sharing them reminds others that there is always hope in tragedy

13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.Romans 15:13

As a student at Hopkin's Charles A. Lindbergh high school, I remember the overwhelming sense of sadness as word filtered out regarding the deaths of two classmates when one of them came in contact with a high tension wire as they sat stargazing from the rooftop of a local business.

The families of those boys were not as lucky as this gentleman featured in this TED talk, and knowing more about what it is like to be in grief I now realize that they lived the rest of their lives wondering what their sons would have been like in later years, who they might have married, and how many children they might have had. 

I think when tragedy strikes young people, there is a deep wisdom that settles in as they travel through  the topsy-turvy waves of grief. Like winning a round  the world sailing race, the person crossing the finish line of grief is filled with exhilaration just knowing they came out stronger than when they first went in. They no longer take life for granted and decide to make a difference in other's lives.

I know, as a Christian and as a grieving dad, that God truly does speak to us, Scripture is full of bible passages that remind us of God's presence to the broken hearted. He often reveals himself through our dreams, through friends, and in the Church messages and in the well placed 'rainbow' as we are driving.

The speaker in this TED talk survived his brush with death despite being pounded by powerful electrical volts  and later  went on to specialized in Palliative care.  He has embraced what happened to him with reminders each day as he gets out of  bed i of those earlier events that changed his life, and why he chose to pursue the field of Palliative care.

We may not have the daily physical reminders of our trauma,but we may nonetheless have the emotional wounds of past trauma that can be equally as troubling.  God gives us the inner strength in the form of his holy spirit to help us weather the storms of life. He gives us the strength to face whatever we are enduring so we are able to walk through the valley of the shadow of death and learn one day to embrace our emotional and physical wounds so we can help others by sharing the hope that is within us. 

Embracing our story, not burying it in a bottomless vault is the answer to help us recover.

God does his greatest work through the stories of people once inflicted by the physical, emotional wounds of life. Our story of how God helped you recover from that pain becomes the focal point for others to come to know that same inner strength.

If we all learn to embrace our stories and be willing to share that story, we will begin to see God do amazing things in our lives, and just maybe be an inspiration for others entering the valley of the shadow of death.