I was at my church yesterday listening to the weekly sermon from one of the pastors that was talking about “sharing your story”. It was an interesting detail of how he explained the hills and valleys of peoples lives, and how sharing that experience can be a life preserver to someone else going through similar struggles.
About 6 years ago I had worked for the Detroit Fire Department Emergency Medical service divison. It was a tough, interesting, stressful, and enlightening job. It taught many values and experiences that I carry on with me to this day. I was at the Detroit EMS for about 5 years and the impact that job had on my personal and work life still effects me to this day both good and bad.
The reason I bring up this section of my life was to share a few experiences myself that were destructive and constructive. As many know, EMS is a very stressful job for the folks that grind it in day and out. You see many things you cannot be unseen and cannot shake out your mind easily. Detroit was a tough job, and it changed me into someone I knew I was not. I had been going through times with my family and not been treating people in my life the proper way. I was heading down the wrong path, it was a dark time in my life.
Eventually I went and sought out therapy to gain some help for myself, I was on edge of losing many things in my life because of my behavior. So I started counseling, and at first I really didn’t give it much chance. Hard to talk to some stranger you didn’t know right? Eventually she was able to help me peel back the layers of troubles that I was having. After many counseling sessions, she told me to go talk to a psychiatrist about medications to help me. I was like look, “I do not need medications to help me with my behavior.” It took me a lot to finally work-up going to see a psychiatrist. I eventually did, and the psychiatrist conducted an assessment on me. It was odd, cause I felt like this was absolutely absurd!!! She calmly told me I had bi-polar disorder. In the back of my mind, I couldn’t except this. It couldn’t be real, and why was I wasting my time. However, I wanted to keep what I had in my life, so something had to change.
It took me many months to find a right combo of things that really help with the matters in my life. As time went on I started to feel much better and to this very day I feel great compared to were I was. I started a new job and things were looking much better. Still though I didn’t feel totally whole at the time.
My wife has always been a Christian, she always has had a found belief in our religion. I would go to church with her when we starting to date and we still go to the same church today and its a great thing. During my time in Detroit EMS, I saw a lot of terrible things. A lot of violence, struggle, and reality that a lot of us do not know exists. As time went on I pretty much lost all hope of God and Jesus in my life and started to become a near Atheist. This had went on for some time and it was impacting me in more than one way. I was like “how can a God that I believe in let this happen to people?” All of the bad in life, all of the suffering, and struggle I thought he could have just wished away in minute. My faith was low and pretty much gone. The relating factor that coincided with this was the my life was going, and I was the engine driving it smack into the ground.
Time moved on and as I stated things were getting a little better, but still even after I quit working for the city, my relationship with God was gone. As the future progressed I was getting sick and tired of being down and having these feelings of depression. I took that leap one more time and it was hard, but I had to work at it. Believing in something again you thought was gone is far more difficult that I expected. Slowly though it started to come back, my faith returned. It took a while for me to totally believe again but it did happen.
So now it is present day, and things should be perfect right lol? Well life as a whole is a blessing and I pray for health, happiness, and safety everyday for my family. I heard that happiness is a choice sometimes, and we had to choose it. I work on that till this day, and like I said some things are easier said than done. My family is my world and I appreciate every second I can, because in a second it can all be taken away. That is the drive that make it all worth it.
In closing, if you going through the fire in your life, weither it be suicidal thoughts, depression, anger, violence etc., please go talk to someone. It can make the difference more than you know. I am far from perfect, but trust me you can do it. There is always hope.
Lastly, I do not want to be the guy in group that says….. “YOU NEED JESUS IN YOUR LIFE!!” That is all you need and you will be forgiven, and all of your troubles will vanish and your will have a perfect life. That is not the way to bring people to the Lord in my opinion. I have seen many people say your going to hell and this and that. I really believe if you go that route you will push someone further away from God than anything. However, I always do invite folks to give a try and give a chance. Come to a few worship services and see what you think. It really is a great thing. I am not hear to judge you, I hear to walk with you in the marathon that is life. One of coolest hardest thing I heard said from a wise man was this, “We pray in our time, but the answers come in God’s time.”
So share your story, you never know when it could make the difference in life. Many people are going through similar captions in their life. Hearing your story can maybe break that chains of loneliness and captivity they are feeling.
Below is a quote I found from the movie Valor. It was written by Chief Tecumseh of the Shawnee before the war of 1812. I read it daily and I try my best to live up to those words. Do not forget though you have a story to tell, and believe when I say this, people are listening.
So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion;respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.
Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and grovel to none.
When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.
When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.
Referenced from:http://www.waynemoran.com/blog2/2012/02/26/tecumseh-poem-from-act-of-valor-movie/
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