A Stroke of Faith by Mark Moore

Guest Blogger Mark Moore

I had always believed that I was in charge of my life, and I had been doing a heck of a good job of it. I was a successful businessman, loving husband and involved father, dedicated amateur athlete, and active member of my local church. However, everything changed on a beautiful Sunday morning in May 2007, when I was hit in quick succession by two nearly fatal strokes at the age of 46. Suddenly, I was no longer in control of anything.

After spending nearly a month in a medically-induced coma, I awoke to find myself a helpless invalid lying in a hospital bed, unable to lift my head, pierced by IVs, tubes, and monitoring devices, and suffering from a hole in my skull from what turned out to be life-saving surgery.

I wondered if I would ever be able to live a life like the one before my strokes and questioned whether I’d ever be able to walk, speak, or tie my shoes again. At first, I was devastated that this had happened to me, but I eventually realized that this was an opportunity to rearrange my priorities and focus on the things that were important to me. From then on, I vowed to never take my family, friends, health, or faith for granted ever again.

Now, 10 years later, I have made an almost-near recovery due to the expertise of medical professionals, extensive rehabilitation, and what I call the 3 F’s (family, faith, and friends)—even having completed a 5k race one year after my strokes. While my life will never fully return to pre-stroke normality, I have chosen to dedicate my life to philanthropy, my family, my renewed relationship with God and his plan, educating others about stroke awareness and prevention, and inspiring those who have suffered similar events. I am proud to be a regional ambassador for the American Stroke Association and the American Heart Association, through which I have been blessed to be able to share my story and educate people about strokes.

The 10^th anniversary of my stroke is this month, coincidently falling during American Stroke Month. My new book, A Stroke of Faith: A Stroke Survivor’s Story of a Second Chance at Living a Life of Significance, published this month, and tells the story of my strokes and recovery journey. I hope that it will inspire others who have suffered similar afflictions and empower them to fully commit to their journey of recovery, even if it seems impossible at the time.

Mark Moore is a philanthropist and successful businessman. Along with his wife Brenda, a former nurse, Mark has established the Mark and Brenda Moore and Family Foundation, through which he supports advances in healthcare, education, culture and the arts, and Christian evangelism. Prior to engaging full time in his philanthropic work, Mark was Chief Operating Officer and co-owner of Segovia, Inc., a leading provider of global internet protocol services to the US Defense Department. Mark is also the Mid-Atlantic Ambassador for the American Stroke Association and the author of the memoir A Stroke of Faith, which is now on sale.

Now retired, Mark spends his days educating people about stroke prevention and awareness, sharing his inspirational story with those who have suffered strokes and other traumatic ailments, and giving back to his community.

In A Stroke of Faith, you’ll read about:
•       The moving story of the COO and co-founder of a multi-billion dollar company who stared down fear as he had to learn to write a check again, tie his shoes, and even walk.
•       How Mark turned to God for a deeper understanding of his hardships.
•       Mark’s Stroke Recovery Guide, where Mark shares key insights that helped him through his recovery.
•       How Mark’s stroke affected his wife and two children, and while there were many challenges along the way, it ultimately brought them closer together as a family.
•       How to be loving friends, care-takers and encouragers to those who are recovering from a stroke, or serious medical condition.
•       The story of how one man accepted that through this test of his very life, he was given a second chance to give back to his family, his friends, his community in ways he never dreamed possible.

More about Mark and A Stroke of Faith can be found at www.astrokeoffaith.com and on Facebook and Twitter @AuthorMarkMoore. @AuthorMarkMoore.

Lectionary October 11, 2015, Year B Proper 23 Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

Job 22:1-9; 16-17, Amos 5:6-7;10-15, Psalm 90:12-17, Hebrews 4:12-16, Mark 10-17-31

Our daughter received the diagnosis: breast cancer. She is the first baby I bathed in the kitchen sink even before I knew how. She is 43 and has two children aged ten and nine. It is not right. It is not fair. It makes me angry. Like Job I look everywhere for God, but cannot find him. Alternatively, perhaps I know what he might say, so I do not want to find him.

Amos reminds me “Raw truth is never popular.” That is true whether it comes from the mouth of a doctor or the Word of God.

Paul’s letter to the Hebrews tells me “What God says goes. His powerful Word is sharp as a surgeon’s scalpel, cutting through everything, whether doubt or defense, laying us open to listen and obey.”

How often do I kneel and ask God to fix a situation, to heal a loved one, to give me what I want? Then I am surprised and taken aback when God does answer, but it requires more of me than I think I can give, much like the rich young ruler in Mark. Where is my humility? Where is my desire to be a living sacrifice? Where did I forget God is always God, and I am not?

So, I go from my knees to lying prone. My tears soak my pillow. I become still. I become quiet. I try to listen to God’s voice and silence my own. I remember Moses’s prayer recorded in the Psalms. “Teach us to live well,” I read the passages in the Gospel of Mark that record Jesus saying, “Go, let everything go. Come, follow me.”

I cannot change the diagnosis. I cannot change whatever the outcome will be. I can only let my child go into the arms of Jesus, into the care of others, from the bathtub to the surgical table, into God’s unfailing love.

Thought for the Day: Allow us, you and I, to listen and obey.

Prayer:
Eternal One, whose thoughts and ways are not ours, you alone are God, awesome, holy, and most high. School us in the ways of faith and wisdom that we may learn to truly see and hear, and in humility find blessing. Amen.

Pray for those who are grieving.

Lectionary Readings: Proper 23 – 20^th Sunday After Pentecost Year B – October 11, 2015 www.lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu [retrieved October 5, 2015].

Bible: verses adapted from The Message (MSG) Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

Prayer: adapted from The Revised Common Lectionary and Prayers ©2002 Augsburg Fortress Press.

Art: Israëls, Jozef, 1824-1911. The Day before Parting, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN.http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=50323 [retrieved October 5, 2015]. Original source: http://www.mfa.org/.

In Memoriam Newtown, CT 12/14/12

I believe there can be no greater pain than the loss of a child. God knows, he lost his son at the hands of angry men. This leaves families feeling powerless, helpless and even hopeless. Even God covered the earth in darkness and sent an earthquake that rent his garment - the veil - to the Holy of Holies

I want to share with you the thoughts of some folks who pray intentionally, who love unconditionally, who know what it is to mourn and grieve through their own experiences and the experiences of those they love. Some believe Christ has come, and are waiting his return. Some are waiting for Messiah. Some believe in Allah. Some believe the no matter where or how we worship:

We all reach out to Newtown in ways that show we are greater than the sum of our parts.

Most loving and ever-present God, this morning we join our country in mourning for the senseless and tragic loss of life on Friday morning.  In shock and despair, we come before You begging for peace. 

We grip tightly to hope during this Advent season.  You alone, O God, can heal this kind of pain. You alone, O God, can comfort the parents and families impacted by such horror.  May we remember that our joy, which we seek at Christmas, is not found in the circumstances on this earth, but in the presence of Your mercy.  

May we remember that the joy of your unending love in the Christ Child, is the only hope we have and the only hope we need.  O God, surround the community in Connecticut with intense and unmistakable love.  

Heal our human ability to destroy life.  May we know and truly understand the message of the manger in Bethlehem– darkness and evil in whatever form is never the last word.  

For You, O God, came to heal, came to save, came to give life and came to give us rest.  May our hope abide in You now and forever.  Amen.     

                                                                            Rev. Laurie Moeller, Pastoral Prayer
                                    Mt. Zion United Methodist Church, 12/16/12, Marietta, Georgia

Guns don't kill people, people kill people.            Eddie Izzard,British Stan-Up Comedian

All people grieve differently. Today is not the day to talk about forgiveness. Today is the day to mourn and commemorate and love and celebrate with the families of Newtown, Connecticut. Later, those same families will need to find a new normal, because the old normal is no longer there. Only then can we deal with forgiveness. We need to be our brother''s keeper. We need to love and support these families in the midst of their loss, and all families who struggle with mental health needs, who need answers that are not easy to find.

Pastor T. D. Jakes, Potter's House, Dallas, Texas

Crawling out is long, hard and searing. First Responders, particularly will need long term mental health care.
                                                               Frank Keating, Former Governor of Oklahoma

It is my hope that the kids and schools find a way, at what would be these precious children's graduation, to once again call their names; to present their diplomas en abstentia. Those of us left behind are the children. We need to allow the reality of the tragedy be what it is. We should also remember Moses' family's grief as they released his basket to the Nile, to help know that we all daily release our children as they pass from our care to another's, We must have hope in the midst of tragedy.

Rev. Dr. Joe Peabody, Mt Zion United Methodist Church, Marietta, Georgia 

The NRA and weapons dealers have gone dark. The are distancing themselves from the slaughter. Is this temporary measure enough?

When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under in accordance with the time he learned from  the Magi.

The Slaughter of the Innocents, Matthew 1:16, NIV

Violent events such as the wars in Iraq, [Afghanistan, Somalia, Israel and Palestine ... ] and the post-war conflict, acts of terrorism, crime, and natural disasters affect everyone. Children receive different information about these events. 

Some children are included in discussions, some overhear adults’ or other children’s talk, some hear or see it on the news. Many young children may be confused or frightened and try to work out their feelings and understanding in play. 

Adults can observe and guide the play by responding to what children say with simple, accurate information and keeping the play within safe physical and emotional boundaries.

For more information contact TRUCE: 

www.truceteachers.org

PO Box 441261, West Somerville, MA 02144  

e-mail: truceteachers@aol.com

You are not alone. A real God can find one in the midst of tragedy. Overwhelming grief enlarges and deepens our faith with evidences of grace. In the midst of the process we must find ways to forgive the broken..

                                                    Bishop Robert Wright, Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta

Heaven is very busy this morning.                                              Meredith , 6  years old

Violent movies and video games will desensitize; and causes one not only to perpetrate acts of violence, and to be less likely to assist victims of violence.

Police across the country have announced a zero tolerance for copycats.

In Newtown, a local builder plans to repair at no charge the homes of the families affected by the violence at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

I pray President Obama holds to his resolve. I pray Congress, rather than sit across the aisle from the "other" party, stand instead, to encircle the children. Remember they have no voice but yours.

Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

A voice is heard in Ramah,

weeping and great mourning,

Rachel weeping for her children

and refusing to be comforted

because they were no more.

The Slaughter of the Innocents, Matthew 2:17-18 NIV

Toy Soldiers, Real Guns

We are greatly removed from the effects of the wars we prosecute. We are then tempted into nihilism and despair when seemingly random violence comes our way. On the day of the shooting my Facebook friends posted updates suggesting we hug someone close to us. Parents that evening squeezed their children tighter than ever when they picked them up safe and sound from school.

To talk about healing, we must talk about love. We must confront what is not love. Violence begets violence; despair begets despair. But we also never know how much reaching out to a shy, angry young man with a simple kindness might actually do.

It takes courage to keep caring after a tragedy. It takes courage to lay down our weapons and stop the violence, big and small. Such acts may not count as heroism in any headline. Yet they just might be the cure for our collective sickness, the only real way to heal.

Robert Peake is an award-winning writer and poet. 

He lives in London England. Visit him online at www.robertpeake.com 

I encourage you to add your prayers or comments (quotations) you have heard or read to this post in the comment box. Remember the goal is to encourage and lift up. The murderer is dead, so the only justice is the actions we take to love and enfold Sandy Hook Elementary School teachers and children; to repeat the names of the children who left the world too soon; to pray for the first responders and surviving mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters; to aid a community experiencing a depth of surrealistic pain we cannot know, but only touch.