My Testimony

Those of you who know me know that I rarely do testimonies. ( a failing that I will have to deal with when I get to heaven)

The call came in late in the afternoon as Patty and I were preparing dinner. The caller said, "Your son, Michael has been hit by a car." Michael was on his bicycle on his way home from USF.

At that instant all the car vs. bicycle and car vs. motercycle incidents that I had responded to as a firefighter for the City of Tampa came flooding into my head. Many of these incidents did not turn out well for the bicyclist or the motorcyclist.

Having these thoughts in my head, I did not dare to even ask the caller if Michael was ok. I just got the location and turned to Patty and said, lets go.

The accident scene was about eight miles from our house and for the first four miles I tried to handle it myself and then finally I said to God I can't handle this on my own. At this time a peace came over me and I knew instantly that whatever had happend is out of my control, but I now have the peace of mind to cope with it. God gave that to me.

When Patty and I arrived at the accident scene Michael was sitting in the back of the ambulance, a little worse for the wear, but he was ok. It seems he turned in front of a slow moving car.

I have all these memories of what happens when there is an accident such as what happened to Michael and Erik so I have have come to the conclusion that God does perform miracles and the miracle is that when misfortune does occur we get this great ability, from God, to cope with that misfortune.

Whenever our crew respnded to an bicycle or motorcycle accident scene and there was head trauma the protocol was to get the cyclist quickly to the nearest trauma center so the organs could be harvested. There may have been other injuries, but I never saw head trauma when there was a helmet worn by the rider. Erik and Michael both wore helmets and they were survivors.

Yesterday two Tampa police officers were gunned down and both passed away. When we come into this lfe, kicking and screaming, naked and unashamed we get no guarantee that no misfortune will befall us. The miracle here is that God gives us and our loved ones ( and it bears repeating ) the ability to cope with that misfortune.