Message from the Past

It's crazy to re-read something after a while, especially when it's something you wrote and forgot that you wrote. Seeing that it's my brother John's birthday tomorrow, my mother sent me something that I had written almost a year after my brother passed in December 2005.


I was in my senior year of college when I wrote this and I thought it was unique enough to share. I'm glad my mother found this because it's something I needed to read. My thoughts almost a year after John's death on his first birthday in heaven:




(9/12/06) "Not sure what to even write.... It has been close to a year since my oldest brother has passed and the feeling that he is gone never fades. One thing I do know is that I have changed since that December day. The most valuable lesson I have learned that I will take with me the rest of my life and that I am proud to have accepted at such a young age is: ALWAYS THANK GOD FOR THE BAD IN LIFE, ALONG WITH THE GOOD.
We can't just choose when we want to thank God and only do so when things in life are going fine. Many may say that losing a family member is a bad thing, but does this belief mean that the tragedy was out of God's Hands? I don't think so. I have thanked God over and over again for everything He has done for my family and to be honest, for even taking my oldest brother home. We must always remember to thank Him for everything in our lives, including the tragedies. One quote that I came across and have tried to apply to my life and that may help others in times of need is: "If you are going through the motions spiritually, don't be surprised when God allows pain in your life, because Pain is the fuel of Passion."

I have also learned since that tragic day in December that we ALL fall.... Some fall in public, and some in private, but we all fall........and I will always remember the pure fact that God looks at the heart and I am comforted to know this truth because no one had a heart like my brother.......I love you John and I thank God for your life."




~The meaning of your name "John" is "God is gracious." From the beginning of your death, (your birthday into eternity), God has been nothing but gracious and I see this more than ever from prison.~