Life changing influencers

Isn't this what we all want to be? We don't want to have a pointless life. For me, there are just a few very important life-changers. Some of them don't even know it and would be surprised. I will be inviting these people to join me in a blog of life-changers. I want to do this because God has for a while been working on me. This blog is just part of the many ideas that have come to mind, for keeping in touch with these individuals.

I would like to introduce this blog using a story that I don't even know all the facts about. But in my mind, it most clearly shows how people can bring the light to others. My grandpa Collins was a self-made man who raised a family in Appalachia during the great depression on a fourth grade education. I called him "Papaw". I visited him and my grandma usually once each year. One time when I was not quite a teenager, he told me a story which I later learned more about from my mom.

One day when grandpa was retired he suffered a heart attack and passed out. In those days in that place there were no EMTs, just ambulance workers. So my grandma rode with grandpa and did what she could to message his heart until the ambulance arrived at the hospital. He ended up surviving to tell me this story. He told me that he died and left his body in the hospital surgery room. He found himself standing on a hill overlooking a beautiful green valley. Next to him was a man he knew to be Jesus Christ. Jesus told him that he was not ready to go in. The next instant he was back in his body. This was all he told me. My mom filled in the rest of the story.

My grandpa went to see a pastor from a nearby town as soon as he could after the heart attack. Pastor J. S. Bell became a very good friend to my grandpa. He explained the good news to my grandpa, who believed it and lived the rest of his life as a follower of Jesus.

There were three life changers in this story, the ambulance workers, my grandma and pastor Bell. They all had a single, important task to save my grandpa's life and to give him the chance for eternal life. But to me the star wasn't a human on earth. It was Jesus Christ, who showed himself to my grandpa and gave him another chance to have life with God.

We may not even know our part in God's work. We just need to be willing to follow God so that He can use us in whatever ways he wants.