FB post 7/9/2012
Today I’m a year older than my father was when he was died and I have a 3 year old son, 4 and 12 year old daughters, and a wife I’m madly in love with. I came home from shift this morning and everything hit me like a wave when I walked through the door to see my son peeking his head around the wall followed by his sisters. For years I wished my dad had walked back through the door and even now I wish I had something like my dad’s Facebook account to take a look at the times we had together (this is why I journal through FB). However, today is special because I can look at my kids and know better the love he had for us as well as the types of experiences we may have had together. I’ve always wondered about that.
Even when I purposefully ran far away from God, He never gave up on me. Through all my selfishness, ungratefulness, self-pity, depression, anger, denial, addictions, pride, rebellion, and plenty more He has always been there I just didn’t always look for Him.
Rom. 5:8 “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Maybe the absence of my father has given me an advantage in knowing the presence of my Heavenly Father. You know how they say when you lose one of your senses it heightens others? I used to focus on the bad things that came from this tragedy until I began to see how many great things were happening in spite of it and how they were directly related to God (this would be around 2004). I think this is what led me to dive in to Big Brothers ministry, mentoring, briefly teaching Bible class w/ my future wife, and now Fathering like I’m some kind of hybrid between Bill Cosby and Jeff Corwin. When I see others who have been through or are going through trials inside I want to scream that God wants to do great things for them too! I need to get better at sharing that.
It’s interesting that I ended up being a Firefighter/Paramedic just like the first responders that were on scene of my dad’s accident. At work I get to see plenty of tragedy. The majority don’t make it to FB posts…doesn’t seem right. But I am always reminded that God is there in tragedy and Heaven is Home, life is the hard part.
I pray for the other victims of this tragedy and their families, that they are able to know as well as experience God’s presence in their life. Also for anyone who has endured a tragedy, if you don’t know, there is so much peace, healing, and hope in Christ Jesus. Trust me I am not the preachy type but today I feel led to share, God is there for you right where you’re at, always reaching out. Read the Bible, don’t just view Christianity as corrupt churches, hypocrites, and judgmental people. There is so much out there for those that can seek out what’s real and not just manipulative media or twisted conversations.
This is by far my longest FB post so I’ll end it here. Back to Psalm 68:5 from above. I’ve always referred to that verse on this day but am particularly struck by the next verse which I normally skip over. Psalm 68:6 “God sets the lonely in families.” (or the desolate in a homeland). Now we are in a class to become foster parents and this next verse has a new significance. Hate to use a cliché’ but God has a plan!
Written by Devin Pierce
Lt. Donald Pierce
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