• Home
  • About
    • About
    • Testimonies
    • Keynote Speaker
    • How to Contact Me
    • Neuroplasticity to Learn
  • Tips to Empower
  • Media
    • Radio
    • Second Chance to Live YouTube Presentations
    • Building Your Life After Brain Injury YouTube
    • 20 Brain Injury Recovery Slideshow Presentations
    • 23 Posters Designed to Inspire Hope
  • Resources
    • Neuroplasticity
      • Stroke, Brain Injury and Neuroplasticity
      • Neuroplasticity to Learn/Relearn Skills
      • Nine Habits to Excel Neuroplasticity
      • Neuroplasticity PowerPoint Presentation
    • Other Resources
      • Translate
      • 16 SCTL Resources
      • Experiencing a Second Chance to Live PowerPoint Presentation
  • eBooks
  • Honors
    • Publications
    • Organizations

Second Chance to Live

Empowering the Individual, Not the Brain Injury

The Dash

June 18, 2007 By Craig

Several days ago, Ruth Bell Graham, Billy Graham’s wife passed away. I was fortunate to watch some of the public service earlier today. Her life covered a span of 87 years. I listened to different members of her family as they eulogized her life. As one would expect, she created lasting memories and positively impacted other people with her life. I am sad for the family, but happy for Mrs. Graham because she is in a place by grace through faith where there is no more sorrow or pain. Her tears are being wiped away. My Dad passed away on January 10, 2007 (Please read my post, Hello World). Although our family was sad at his passing, we believe he is in a much better place, as is Mrs. Graham.

What struck me as I watched Mrs. Graham’s memorial service was that she gone forever.

People die many times each day. Television shows and movie screens often desensitize us to the finality of death. Reality does not seem to sink in until someone close to us dies. That is what happened to me after my Dad died. I was reminded — with stark reality — that life does indeed end. Remarkably…we are here on this earth for an appointed amount of time and then we are no more. Memories live on in our families and close friends, but for many more we are only an obituary in the local newspaper. The time we had been given will be swallowed by eternity. When death comes, our light will be extinguished. We will be no more. Our appointed time will end and the dash between the date we were born and the date that we died will be filled in forever. Our ability to use what had been given to us will end.

My point is that our time is precious. Therefore we need be diligent to be who we are. No substitute will do. We must guard ourselves from the lie that our presence does not matter. You may have a traumatic brain injury, some other type of disability or may have been the victim of emotional, physical or sexual abuse. You may have people in your life that want to keep you dependent upon them. You may have made significant mistakes during your lifetime that have kept you trapped by guilt and shame. The good news is that those circumstances do not have to prevent you from using your gifts, talents and abilities. You and I were created to fulfill our destinies. We are competent. We can find solutions. Our circumstances are not meant to keep us down, but to build us up.

As we use our gifts, talents and abilities we will leave behind a lasting tribute to a life well lived.

I would encourage you, as I need to encourage myself, do not be lulled into believing that your life does not matter. You are precious and very valuable. Your presence is more than needed. What you bring to the table of life brings hope to many individuals. You are beautifully you. You are a bright and shinning star. Allow the magnificence of your life to shine brightly in a world that desperately needs your essence. Be encouraged my friends. You are a gift to your world.

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, “I used everything you gave me”. Erma Bombeck

Receive more articles like this one simply by clicking on Subscribe to Second Chance to Live by email

Bookmark and and read articles from Second Chance to Live in a Feed Reader by clicking on the following links:

Bookmark Second Chance to Live

Subscribe in a reader

All material presented on Second Chance to Live is copyright and cannot be, copied, reproduced, or distributed in any way without the express, written consent of Craig J. Phillips, MRC, BA Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-NoDerivs CC BY-NC- ND

Share this Article

  • Pinterest
  • Email
  • Print
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Pocket

Like this:

Like Loading...

Filed Under: Finding Purpose after a Brain Injury

Comments

  1. scott w says

    June 22, 2007 at 12:24 pm

    Thanks for sharing, especially your last paragraph. Your triumphs are inspiring.

    Loading...
    Reply
  2. secondchancetolive says

    June 22, 2007 at 11:40 pm

    Thank you for leaving a comment and your kind words. Have a pleasant weekend. Craig

    Loading...
    Reply
  3. Judy Reid says

    September 24, 2007 at 9:30 pm

    I have come to believe that our “presence” is the most valuable gift we have to share. God works through our brokenness to meet needs that could not be met in any other way. I think you are living proof of that in the work you have done on yourself and are presently doing with your blog.

    Loading...
    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Author, Advocate, Keynote Speaker

Official Second Chance to Live Logo

Determine to Create a Second Chance to Live One Skill and One Skill Set

Check out the New Layout of Second Chance to Live

10 Free eBooks Empower Recovery

Click on each of the eBook titles and a page will open. At the top of the page is a PDF to read the eBook. At the bottom of the page are download instructions to save the eBook to your device now.

putting-the-pieces-in-place-after-brain-injury

Living with a Brain Injury eBook Putting the Pieces in Place 60 Video Presentations

building-self-esteem-self-acceptance-after-brain-injury

Living with a brain injury and Building Self-Esteem and Self-Acceptance e Book

Stop-Being-Your-Enemy-Create-a-Life-for-Yourself

Living with a Brain Injury, What Helped Me to Stop Being my Enemy and Create a Life for Myself e Book

being-your-own-hero-through-overcoming-adversity

Being Your own Hero through Overcoming Adversity — Tools for Rebuilding Your Life e Book

making-sense-of-why and what-is-my-destiny

Living with a Brain Injury, Making Sense of Why and What is my Destiny? e Book

It-Is-never-too-late-to-create-hope

Create a Spark of Hope— Free Download

Finished eBook Cover Moving Forward Following a Brain Injury eBook

Moving Forward Following a Brain Injury e Book

Living with a Brain Injury and Learning to Take Care of Ourselves

Living with a Brain Injury and Learning to Take Care of Ourselves eBook

Having a Relationship with Myself and Other People after Brain Injury Video Presentations eBook

Having a Relationship with Myself and Other People after a Brain Injury Video Presentations eBook

Celebrating Success after a Brain Injury Video Presentations eBook

Follow Second Chance to Live

RSS Feed RSS - Posts

Archives

June 2007
M T W T F S S
« May   Jul »
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930  

Translate Second Chance to Live

Albanian Arabic Bulgarian Catalan Chinese Simplified Chinese Traditional Croatian Czech Danish Dutch Estonian Filipino Finnish French Galician German Greek Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Indonesian Italian Japanese Korean Lativian Lithuanian Maltese Norwegian Polish Portuguese Romanian Russian Serbian Slovak Slovenian Spanish Swedish Thai Turkish Ukrainian Vietnamese

Copyright © 2019 · All rights reserved. · Sitemap

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
%d bloggers like this: