The Power of a Second

A second.

That’s all it took to change my life forever.

It was the first day of my annual spring turkey hunting trip. Every April for years I’ve taken a week off to meet up with my sons and head into the woods to match wits with the wild and elusive game birds. We’ve accumulated a host of fond memories from our many trips and often find ourselves reminiscing about thrilling hunting experiences.

I had arrived a day early and hunted alone that crisp, sunny morning. My boys would meet up with me that night. It was the first day of my favorite week, making it perhaps my best day of the year.

Or worst day of my life.

After the morning hunt, late that afternoon I was driving down a two-lane country highway. A speeding car suddenly appeared over the hill, in my lane, right in front of me.

Head-on. It happened in a second.

My first memory after the blackout was a voice at the scene, “I need to cut off your clothes.” And I remember the forceful thrust of the rotors overhead and the powerful lift of the medevac helicopter as it ascended and headed toward the trauma-one University Hospital in Columbia.

Head fracture and bleeding in the brain. Flesh ripped off my foot. Shattered heel. Shattered hip. Broken pelvis. Two partially collapsed lungs. Broken clavicle. Arm severely broken in multiple places.

Six intense surgeries and five weeks later, I’d finally be brought home to St. Louis for continued convalescence. And Six months in, I’m still in a wheel chair with no clear prognosis as to whether, or how well, I’ll ever walk.

There was no buildup to the event, no warning or precursor. My life was changed in a second.

You and I simply have no promise of tomorrow. Anything can happen to us or our loved ones at any time. In theory we get that. But if we’re honest, I think there’s a little “it can’t happen to me” mentality in each of us. Down deep, we tend to think things will go on forever as they always have.

The great calamity of your life may be an accident or physical tragedy, a horrifying medical diagnosis, unexpected relational devastation, the untimely death of a loved one. Trauma and anguish come in many forms. We are not well served by thinking and living as though it can’t happen.

The New Testament writer, James, cautions us to not presume upon the future, “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there’… Why, you don’t even know what will happen tomorrow.”

The point is not that we shouldn’t make plans and grab hold of life. But the writer suggests maintaining a loose grip—a humble tentativeness-- in our plans and assumptions. “…Instead, you ought to say, ‘if it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’”

James goes on to assert the brevity of life. “What is your life?” he asks, “you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” Likewise, the Psalmist prays, “Teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” Living with awareness of the shortness of life and the uncertainty of tomorrow can move us to live more wisely and prioritize things of first importance.

One such thing is our significant relationships. Imagine being tragically “cut off” while having neglected attending to damaged relationships with loved ones—perhaps having refused forgiveness we needed to extend, or failing to humbly seek the forgiveness our heart craves. After an unexpected tragedy that leaves us dead or incapacitated, it’s too late.

Another area we commonly neglect when we think life will never drastically change is that of our own personal growth—the development of soul and spirit. If this is the case, we may find ourselves lacking the spiritually developed capacity to cope with tragedy if it does occur.

Through the on-going aftermath of my horrific accident, I’ve come to realize that I’ve been long preparing for this calamity. Biblical principles and profoundly reassuring promises, which I’ve ingested during times of lesser troubles, have greatly contributed to sustaining me through my recent dark hours. Apparently I’ve been training for this circumstance for many years. I just didn’t know it.

If we’ve been neglecting appropriate attention to significant relationships or to our own spiritual development because we think we have all the time in the world, we can even now begin to correct that, one step at a time. “Seek the Lord while he may be found,” urges the Old Testament prophet. It’s not too late.

But one day—perhaps in a split second—it will be.

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James 4:13-15 Psalm 90:12 Isaiah 55:6

Bob Levin can be reached at: bob_levin@sbcglobal.net