This is mostly a recap of what happened to me in June of 2009, it’s quite a story. It’s also the story of how I obtained the huge scar on my left arm.
Sitting next to my hospital bed in Harborview Hospital in Seattle (and typing with one hand) I want to take some time to reflect on all that God has done for me over the last few days. This desire stems a little out of boredom and a lot out of my desire to thank God for protecting me during and after my injury and for all the powerful things he showed me before my fall. For the sake of keeping things in a sensible order, I’ll keep it chronological. If you want the abbreviated version read the last paragraph.
Sunday afternoon (June 14, 2009) Stephen and I left for La Push, which is near Forks over on the peninsula. We left on our drive listening to Iron and Wine, Postal Service, the Album Leaf and all kinds of good chill music of that nature and talked about the whole point of why we were going: to give a weekend to God and to take some time to listen to his will for our lives, especially for the summer months. The whole trip over was very peaceful and our conversations were centered on God with the occasional tangent to talk about the sites we saw, like Kitchen-Dick Road just outside Port Angeles. The first stop of note was at Lake Crescent (or maybe it was Crescent Lake…irrelevant).
As we were driving around the lake my eyes kept losing the road for the sake of staring through the fog on the lake towards the silhouettes of the mountains and trees so subtly yet beautifully lit by the sun that was still surprisingly high in the sky. We decided to stop and have a look around so we pulled over and walked to the edge of the lake. Now my dad has told me that this particular lake is incredibly cold however, when I put my hand in, I felt the perfect temperature for swimming, I refrained from plunging in simply because I didn’t want to get wet before arriving at our destination. As we sat on the lakeside, I was peacefully overwhelmed by God’s presence to the point where I couldn’t keep from calling out his name as a thank you for showing off his power in such a glorious way. It was literally a small moment of what felt like perfection in our far from perfect world. As we continued to wander around the lake’s edge I continued to grin from ear to ear at the trees and waves and everything else that was around me, and honestly just the beauty of the whole setting. We then crossed over to the other side of the road from where we stopped the car, where God continued to show the power of his hand.
We entered into the dense wooded area to see an incredibly steep hill sloping up in front of us. As we began to climb the hill we realized the softness of every step we took was thanks to the thick moss under our feet, unfortunately this moss was easily torn up with every ascending footstep. Yet this moss covered every inch of the hill we were climbing, showing that no one had climbed that hill in a very long time. In other words no one else had bothered to pull over and look at the beauty, which was growing all around that area. What a shame to know that God’s beauty is everywhere if we just stop and look, yet it is so under appreciated because we wont.
Descending the hill to look at a clearing nearby us, I noticed a small plant that I had never seen before and it demonstrated so well what I think is one of the coolest things that plants do; they grow towards the sunlight. They will ignore their natural symmetry so that they can grow closer to their source of life. If I recall correctly this is a still unexplained phenomenon because though we expect plants to thrive near their life source, plants don’t have logic, conscious thought, etc, so how would they know to move themselves towards the sun? Pretty nifty I think.
When we reached our destination, we quickly set up camp and after getting comfortable we resumed our conversations about God and his will. We began talking about what we needed from God and after finding that we were in consensus about the need for first guidance and second comfort, we decided our time would be better spent seeking what God would like to show us while we were devoting time to him. Rather than simply asking for what we wanted or thought we needed we asked what our father (undoubtedly the greatest gift giver of all time) would like to give us. We then took some time for silent prayer and, this time in direct conversation with him, we dedicated our entire trip to God, yet again.
The following morning we awoke, ate and left for the Hoh rain forest, a beautiful place near where we were camping. The thing that sticks out to me the most about our stop at the rain forest was the fallen trees. There are massive trees of all types that have been torn up literally, at the root. Now, these impressed me for two reasons 1) they were so massive and beautiful and God designed and made them yet he also knocked over and killed them like it was nothing 2) something that died was still a source of life because there were plants growing all over these trees and in the hole where the roots once were. God made so much life and new creation out of the death of this tree.
After a few hours we left the rain forest and this is where I begin mostly repeating details rather than telling the story because I don’t remember much. We went to Rialto Beach, after leaving the rain forest, and we decided to play worship on the beach for a while. Then we headed up the beach and waded over to a massive rock we had decided to climb. I don’t remember the ascent other than that it was uneventful and that two Korean guys watched us the whole time. We reached the top and I remember looking off to the right and seeing three beautiful rocks/islands similar to the one we were sitting on. Then came the descent.
Apparently I went down from the rock on some route Stephen had decided it was not safe to take and at some point I lost my footing. I then slid/rolled/tumbled about thirty feet, then took a five to ten foot freefall and landed on some rocks and I apparently had a small rock slide coming down after me too. I’m told I stood up for a minute, but honestly all I remember is hitting my head really, really hard and thinking, “oh crap” while falling. Less than a minute later Stephen got to me, he says only by God’s guidance, as he is not an experienced climber yet he moved like Spiderman down that rock. Stephen wrapped his shirt around my seriously bleeding head then went for help that arrived awhile later in the form of a coast guard boat which took me to an ambulance which in turn took me to the ER at Forks. From there I was moved to Port Angeles ER and from there I was airlifted to Harborview. I recall waking up in the ER at Harborview and seeing my parents and my dear friend and former youth pastor Ryan Schlect. I am told I asked the same four questions over and over again 1) is Stephen ok? 2) what happened? 3) Can you call Madison and tell her we won’t be able to go to that show tomorrow? And lastly 4) that tube inside me means I can just let go and pee right? All of this happened Monday and I’m still here in Harborview on Wednesday June 17th, 2009 with not but a fractured elbow in need of surgery and some miscellaneous bumps and scratches. I’m so thankful that I have no neck or back injuries, that I can get up and walk around on my own power, and that my right hand is entirely usable and unharmed (with the exception of one tiny scratch on the back of it).
Since all of this happened, I have looked back numerous times on all the ways I could’ve died, but didn’t. This is irrelevant however because the core of this whole dilemma is the fact that God saved me. I don’t know what in the world he is going to use me for, but he did it because he loves me. From here it’s just a matter of going forth and telling people all about him. He is wonderful: don’t you know?
