The Closest I’ve Come To Being Resurrected…So Far
| On this day when people all over the world are celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, I thought it’d be a good time to share with you my own little resurrection story. It’s nowhere near as cool as His, but it’s still worth telling. In August of 2012, I went on a church camping trip to Cloudland Canyon State Park, located in a little mountain town called Rising Fawn, Georgia. It was amazing. We stayed in big group lodges, had meals together, worshipped together twice a day, and had tons of adventures hiking, rafting, rappelling, and enjoying the majesty of God’s creation. One night in preparation for an evening of worship around a campfire, some of the guys were out scouting for logs that could be turned into firewood. Those that had been on these trips before had a system- find large dry logs and break them down into much smaller logs. Sounds simple enough, but they had a very unique way of breaking down the logs. It almost reminded me of a scene from the movie Braveheart. Picture a thick log that is 7-8 feet long. They had over a dozen of them. What they would do is put two guys on one end and two guys on the other end, and then they would all hold on tight (key word) and RUN the log full speed into a much larger tree. Every time they did it, the log would instantly break and everyone would shout. It looked SO fun! Being the adventurer that I am, I wanted to try it too so I joined three other guys, and we did our William Wallace charge right into the tree…and the log broke! It was such a rush! After this, we did it two more times and by then the adrenaline was REALLY pumping. Right as we were about to break another one, one of the guys said he needed to leave to start getting ready for dinner. What happened next proves that math really is a subject we may need as adults. We grabbed another log and got ourselves in the ready position. We had two guys on the right and we had ONE (me) on the left. We charged full speed at the tree, and just as we were about to hit it…I realized this may not work out as well as the other three times. And boy was I right. As I often say as I retell this story “I fought the log…and the log won.” When we hit the tree, instead of the log breaking, it came out of my hands, hit my chin, hit my lip, and knocked my left front tooth forward. Stunned, I put my head down to compose myself and I saw blood pouring from my face onto the ground. As I looked up at one of my friends, he saw my face and with a look of shock in his eyes he said “you’ve got to see your lip!” I rushed into the bathroom, looked in the mirror, and no exaggeration…it looked like I had three lips. Two on the bottom and one on the top. The bottom one was split wide open. As I frantically tried to stop the bleeding, my friends ran to get our pastor to tell him that I needed a ride to a clinic right away. The closest one was about 45 minutes away. When we got there, they sowed up my lip, sowed up the wound on my chin, gave me some funny looks as I told them the story, took my $300 bucks, and sent me on my way. They also told me to keep a close eye on my tooth because of how loose it was. During the remainder of the trip, I could feel it wiggle as I would eat, and it made me afraid to eat apples or other foods that would pull on it. After I returned home, not only was it still loose, but from the top down, the tooth was also beginning to turn brown. This was very alarming. After googling what it could be, I knew I needed to get it checked out. Within a few days, I went to our family dentist and I got a full exam including x-rays. With a look of urgency on her face she showed me the images and told me that she found some things that I should be VERY concerned about. She showed me a distinct discoloration above the injured tooth. She said that the tooth was fractured and the nerve was dead. She also said that the tooth was turning brown because it was dying and that if I didn’t have it removed immediately, it would abscess and infect the other teeth. I told her I would pray about it and get back to her. When I left the dentists’ office, I stood on the curb and silently asked God “what do you say about this?” I got my answer in the form of a song. It’s a beautiful song called “The Voice of Truth” by Casting Crowns. It goes like this: “The voice of truth tells me a different story. The voice of truth says do not be afraid. The voice of truth says this is for My glory. Out of all the voices calling out to me, I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth.” As I stood there on the curb and “heard” this song playing inside me, all the fear was washed completely off of me. After this, I really believed in my heart that everything was going to be fine. Everyday after I would check my tooth to see if anything was changing. Over the course of about 6 months, they did. Completely. All the discoloration was gone and all the looseness was gone. One day I was even finally able to bite into an apple again without a single problem. That’s when I knew my tooth had been fully resurrected! And by the grace of God it’s still alive and it’s still chewing apples just fine! I guess if you’re to take anything away from my story it’s that even in the midst of a seemingly impossible situation, there is always hope. God says that “ALL things will work together for good for those that love Him” (Romans 8:28.) I mean, who would have thought that a bunch of macho male shenanigan’s and a completely avoidable accident would be redeemed into a fun miracle story that I’d be sharing 9 years later? Truly amazing! Thanks for letting me share my story with you. I hope you enjoy the rest of your day! If there is anything I can pray for you about, please let me know. Jesus loves you and so do I! Chris P.S. Did you know that Jesus said that those who believe in Him and follow Him will live forever? “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whosoever shall believe upon Him shall not perish, but shall inherit eternal life” John 3:16 Jesus said “I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26 His resurrection and ascension to heaven is symbolic of what will happen one day to those that follow Him. They will die a natural death, but will then be resurrected into eternal life with Him in heaven. It really is awesome! I pray that you receive Him and His gift of eternal life today! God bless! |