Special Day

Most of the time we want to remember the good moments, and how they impacted our lives. However, this was just the beginning of the darkest period of my life. 3 years ago today I had a stroke at about 9 p.m. I was paralyzed on the entire left side of my body for about 12 hours. Sitting in my hospital bed that first night, and someone taking my left leg off the bed. I sat there and stared at it and it didn't move an inch. I remember laying there thinking "move" and nothing happened. I adventually went to sleep that night, and when I woke up in the morning I was fine. I ended up going to 3 hospitals in the 1st 24 hours, and spent 6 days in the hospital. It was miserable being poked and proaded with needles, tubes shoved down my throat, and spending what seemed like an eternity inside an MRI machine as they took pictures of my brain.

On the outside everything seemed like I had the life by working, going to school full-time to complete my master's, but in reality I was going insane. The guilt, shame, and comdemnation that I felt from my past poor decisions were eating me from the inside out. I didn't have a way out. My cousin ended up giving me a interview with Tony Dungy, and he quoted a verse: Matthew 16:26 which says "What is a man to gain the entire world only in the end to loose his soul." This said to me that I could have all the money, cars, booze, drugs, and girls that I wanted, but I was still going to die and go to hell.

I was then given the chance to go experience some of the world and was given an opportunity to serve at an organization called New York City Relief. They have 2 school buses converted into portable soup kitchens. Where we took about 1000 meals a day into New York City to serve the poor and oppressed. I figured that this was the time to really figure out for myself "Is there or isn't there a God?" I also had a roommate named Eric, who has been instramental in my life. He told me from the day I walked in the door that there was nothing I could do that would make him love me less. I didn't know what that meant? He told me this everyday for the 1st 3 weeks, and finally I broke. James 5:16 says " Confess your sins to each other so that you may be healed, the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." That night I told Eric things that I had never told anyone, and he gave me a hug and said "Andy, there is nothing that you told me that makes me love you less." My life has never been the same! That night he showed me the love, grace, and mercy of Jesus Christ.

I want to encourage anyone has ever dealt with the things that I have talked about that there is answer to my orginal question: "Is there a God?" I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is, and He is amazing!