Stronger Purpose: 2 Crushed Fatboys
by Billy Strother
On December 10, 2008, I was literally crushed. It was the last day of the semester at the Atlanta university where I was a faculty member. (Did you know you can ride a motorcycle 12 months out of the year in Georgia?) The day was glorious - crystal clear blue sky and 72 degrees.
It was lunch and I was hungry. So, there in south Atlanta, I rode a couple of miles from the campus to Burger King and bought two Whoppers (one for each saddle bag on my Harley).
On the return trip to campus, I was crushed by a Nissan Pathfinder that steered through me. I was riding straight at low speed, and, in a non-braking turn, the Pathfinder drove right through me, crushing my left leg and thigh, throwing me up onto the hood, then jettisoning me through space. I landed half on the sidewalk and half in the street. Two fat boys were crushed that day—me (I am a man of significant physical circumference) and the Fatboy model of Harley I was riding. The Harley was totaled, as very nearly was I.
It did not look like I would survive the ride to the trauma center. But in God’s grace, I did. It did not look as if I would even survive in the emergency room. But Jesus blessed. Then, after emergency surgery, it did not look like I would walk again. But, after twelve surgeries in eleven months, an extraordinary amount of help and prayer, and a little more recovery, the Lord blessed again, and I rose from the wheelchair to learn to walk again, and even ride another Harley.
Yes, by the time of that accident, I had already for multiple decades served as preacher, professor, theologian, speaker, and writer. I was doing a lot of meaningful religious stuff, following Jesus, and taking care of religious business as it came and went. I guess I could say that before my accident, my purpose was to get all my religious tasks done. What I did for the Lord was simply driven by a “To Do” list; my purpose was to complete and check off each “to do” that appeared on my list as a new task. Sadly, my purpose was just to get things done. The ends became the means. (Think of Elvis Presley’s corporate motto “TCB”—Taking Care of Business.) My purpose had long degenerated into simply taking care of religious business. Yes, there was Kingdom fruit, but there was no cohesive purpose driving the quality nor the focus of my activities.
Believe me, I am no hero. I had to learn my lesson through tragedy.
From all of that unwanted adventure, a surprising reciprocity emerged: because my body was crushed, my purpose grew stronger. The whole terrible experience transformed into clarifying my definition of purpose. In fact, what emerged was the development of a personal mission statement which has guided my spiritual and professional endeavors since. Out of the chaos emerged a clarifying purpose statement which has made me stronger even as my body ages and grows weaker. While my body grew weaker, my life purpose grew stronger.
Out of that near death experience rose this personal mission statement which now guides the “why” of what I do; it shapes how I do things and to what end. It shapes the process and the end product of what I do for the Lord. Sometimes I succeed, and sometimes I fall short, but my personal mission statement is always there, just like Jesus is always there, shaping and clarifying.
My personal mission statement after spending time as the world’s largest hood ornament?
“Drag as many people to heaven as humanly possible before I croak!”
The statement is not complex, nor scholarly. It is not wrapped up in religiously verbose pretty paper. Yet, in its simplicity, it shapes everything I do for the Lord and my approach to every person I meet.
As elders or church influencers, we can get so wrapped up in religious “To Do” lists, knocking them down and checking them off, caught up in a religious TCB mentality. Even the joy of doing things for the Lord is drained from us. The very tasks we do become the ends in themselves. Our purpose becomes simply to get things done - in church, our ministries, our lives - another meeting, writing another lesson, setting up communion, serving as a youth coach, working on the finance team, counting the offerings on Sunday, singing or playing in the worship band, changing diapers in the nursery, making decisions in another board meeting, handling another conflict, putting out another church fire … with no sense of “why,” no sense of purpose beyond the task. And we can become emotionally and spiritually drained - religious, but joyless automatons.
My hope for you is that you have developed or will develop a personal, stronger purpose statement, in the light of your relationship with Jesus. And my prayer is that you do not need a tragedy to discover the need for one.
What is your purpose in the Lord? How would you define, in your own words, the big mission the Lord has you on, the purpose which shapes how and why you do things for the Lord and people?
Your purpose will grow stronger when you are able to clearly and simply articulate it. You will grow stronger, as will your joy in serving the Lord, and the Kingdom fruit you bear.
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A plan in the heart of a person is like deep water, but a person of understanding draws it out.
Proverbs 20:5 (NASB)
