I can still remember the phone call. Pam and I were driving home from a Christmas party in Memphis. I had taken a new job with International Paper just a few months earlier, and my role with the organization was expanded significantly.
The voice on the other end of the phone was calm but direct. I was told that we had a very serious injury in one of the facilities that I was now responsible for leading. A young man had his hand caught in a machine and was being taken to the trauma center in Memphis some three plus hours away from the facility location.
Early the next morning, I met Nathan for the first time. He was out of surgery and was in recovery. Nathan had lost his right hand the night before and was now in stable condition. Nathan was eighteen years old, and six months out of high school.
I spent over an hour with Nathan and his mom. It would be my first of many meetings with Nathan and his mom over the next eighteen months. Nathan would eventually be fitted with a prosthetic hand, return to work, and move on with life, but those eighteen months were hard.
While he had professional counseling, I met with him every 5-6 weeks to just check in and talk. Nathan didn’t have a father in his life, and I could only imagine how difficult this injury would be for him. Some of our talks were incredibly difficult, but each of them ended with his mom being so thankful for my time.
I kept waiting for his mom to ask me the question that I couldn’t answer. I went over my potential response time and again, but it was never asked. I couldn’t believe she never asked how we could let that happen to her son. She just thanked me for taking so much time with Nathan.
Looking back, there were a number of unfortunate things that happened that night, but the people in the facility handled things so well. They responded in a manner that saved his life. They continued to respond after Nathan’s return in a manner that continued to save his life.
No one came to work that day expecting something like that to happen. No one ever does, do they?
That’s just how quickly life can change.
It’s not always something tragic, but life can change rather quickly. There are so many variables that we don’t control and so many things going on all around us that there is no way to anticipate or prepare for everything.
However, there are a few things that remain true for me that I try to embrace every day:
· Start the day with gratitude – Be thankful
· Focus on others – Pray daily for others
· Keep moving – Exercise releases tension
· Invest in self- fill your cup so you can pour into others
· Invest in others – empty the cup daily
Our lives will be interrupted at times. Nathan’s life was interrupted in a major way! The key is not to avoid the interruption but rather be grounded in a manner that provides a strong foundation to withstand the storms when they hit.
Matthew 7:24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”
Where are you building your foundation? It’s a question worth asking! It’s a question worth answering!
Doug equips leaders to make organizations better. He has two leadership books available on all online platforms.Whether you are looking for a speaker for your next event or a leadership coach to develop people and build an authentic team, contact Doug at doug.strickel@gmail.com and learn more about PLUS.
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