The Life Past
the Comma™ Story...
The Friday after Thanksgiving in 2003, I heard my cell phone ring and
my wife answer it. "It's for you," she said. "Tell
them I'll call them back," I replied as I tried
to unlock the door with my arms full.
We were returning from a Thanksgiving Day with Wendy's parents and I
was trying to unload the car so we could get the
kids to bed. Her next comment let me know it was
serious. "It's important. I think you need to take
it."
From the moment I said hello I was introduced to the idea of commas in
our lives. A board member at our church told me
that they had just taken my mother to the hospital
from the high school football game where my nephew
was playing. "It's serious, Paul. You better get
there fast."
I dropped the load inside the house, kissed Wendy and got in the car.
In the emergency room I saw my mother laying on
a gurney, my family standing around it and doctors
and nurses - many of whom I knew - scrambling around
her. I never spoke to my mother again. She died
the following Monday, December 1, 2003, of a brain
aneurism. My brother joined her in death 20 days
later due to a broken heart and bi-lateral pneumonia.
I performed his funeral and we buried him on Christmas
Eve. Over the next year I lost both grandmothers,
my youngest sister had a miscarriage, my mother-in-law
was in a severe car accident, and my father - overcome
with grief - met and married someone who pretended
to be what she wasn't so she could take what wasn't
hers.
In 12 months my life went from perfect to stuck. I experienced a comma
and life seemed to stand still.
Over that time, though, I continued serving as
the youth pastor and worship leader in our church.
I preached what I was experiencing - the hurt,
the hope, and the healing. I found that even though
life may give us commas, God can give us life past
those commas. There is hope beyond the hurt and
healing for heartache. There is Life Past the Comma™, and I would
love the chance to share it with your church or
organization through my testimony, the truth from
Scripture that God gave me, and the songs that
I wrote during those long months.
Thank you for taking the time to get to know my story. May God bless
you.
Paul
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