Praying for Big Pat

These days it appears everywhere I turn I see close friends and family going through the roughest of times.  I can sit here and rattle off my laundry list of situations, but I would rather share with you the reality check I experienced most recently.  One, in my opinion, that would change my life’s perspective forever.  I pray sharing this story with you will have an impact on you as well; this is the story of Big Pat.

In January of this year, Big Pat and a few of us were hanging out one night when all of a sudden the situation got extremely tense.  Big Pat leaned over and whispered to me that he wasn’t feeling well and thought it would be best if he went to the hospital.  Without hesitation, we all rushed him to the emergency room.  It was at that point that we all realized that our suspicions and assumptions were real, Big Pat’s battle with kidney disease had elevated to a new level.  The doctors uttered these dreadful words to Big Pat, “Your kidneys are on the verge of failing”.  Almost immediately Big Pat went back to eating healthy and taking better care of his body, seemingly dodging the bullet. 

As time passed, the thought of what could have been seemed to all like a distant memory, until the reality of the situation reared its ugly head again.  Only this time, one’s worse fears were confirmed when Pat was giving the type of truth no one ever wants to hear; “Your kidneys have completely failed”.   I sat with him after he finished up one surgery and nurses were prepping him to enter another surgery the next morning.  His blood shot eyes and slurred speech shook me to my core and brought utter horror to me.  A man, my friend, who once joked and laughed with me about everything, is now laying before me with fear in his heart and pain throughout his body.  During a heart to hear that seemed to go on for hours, Big Pat said something to me that was profound in that, “If you don’t have your health you don’t have anything”. Well, he didn’t put it quite as PG as that but for the purposes of this article I decided this way would be best. 

To think it was at that moment I realized just how much I take for granted the importance of being healthy.  Big Pat’s discussion taught me quite a few things that night. One could be the wealthiest man in the world, but if you’re not healthy enough to spend the money then none of it even matters.  This situation hit very close to home for me and has catapulted praying for everyone’s health to the top of my list.  Big Pat’s unfortunate situation has proven to me just how BLESSED we are to be able to walk and talk, hear and cheer. 

The one thing life cannot take away from me is the passion in my heart for living.  No longer will I hold pity parties for watching my bank account balance dwindle.  Fortunately enough, Big Pat is doing much better today and seems to be getting back to a sense of normalcy.  He’s back to joking and calling my phone everyday to talk about absolutely nothing (lol) - Love you Big Pat.  In more ways this tragedy has brought to light what’s most important in life.  As mentioned earlier, I pray after you read this article that you look up from this newspaper, take a deep breath and THANK GOD for all the wonderful BLESSINGS you have in your life that we sometimes take for granted.   

Big Pat cutting my hair off!