On Fire For Good honoree Brent Oliver’s life is proof that miracles still exist.
“Do you still believe in miracles?”
A smattering of hands went up when I asked that question at a leadership conference last week.
Surprised by how few, I tried a different approach.
“How many of you saw the sun rise this morning? How many of you stopped to consider how incredibly unlikely it is that you are here at all? That your heart beats without being reminded. That your eyes capture light and turn it into images. That you can laugh, love, work, walk, and dance through your days”
More hands went up, but still not all of them!
Well, my friends, I am certain miracles still happen.
And Brent Oliver’s life is proof.
In 1991, Brent was riding his motorcycle through the mountains of Oregon when he struck a cable. His injuries were catastrophic. The location was remote. Help was far away.
He should have died.
But he didn’t.
Brent had no pulse for nearly 20 minutes. CPR was eventually performed on him for two hours. And somehow, he survived. But he was left an incomplete quadriplegic, with a permanent airway that required him to breathe through a hole in his neck.
That was the miracle. But maybe it wasn’t the only miracle.
Instead of surrendering, Brent wanted his life back. He wanted to drive again. To work again. To get back into the mountains again.
He wanted to live again.
After intensive therapy, one of Brent’s forms of rehabilitation involved collecting abandoned firewood in the mountains. Unable to lift the logs into his truck, he crawled on his hands and knees and rolled them into the bed.
Eventually, he decided he needed a chainsaw.
There was just one problem: He couldn’t start one.
Not to be deterred, Brent got inventive. Don’t try this at home, my friends, but he wedged the pull cord into the door of his pickup, braced the chainsaw against a rock and used his stronger arm to throw the saw toward the ground.
Eventually, the thing roared to life.
And before long, Brent was collecting nearly 300 cords of wood a year.
Think about that. A man who was told, in so many ways, that his life would never be the same found a way to build a new one.
He didn’t wait for life to become easy. He figured out what he could do, tried, failed, adapted and tried again.
Maybe that is another kind of miracle.
Over time, Brent rarely talked about what happened to him. Then he began to wonder if keeping his story private meant withholding something that could help someone else.
That realization lead to formation of the Brent Oliver 541 Foundation, which focuses on giving others what Brent largely had to create for himself: access, opportunity and the tools to do the impossible.
Today, one of his biggest projects is restoring the mile-long paved trail around Jubilee Lake so people with mobility limitations can more fully experience the outdoors.
It’s a massive undertaking. And yet, Brent Oliver isn’t interested in easy. He’s built a life making the impossible a reality.
And that brings me back to the question we started with: Do you still believe in miracles?
While most of us will never endure what Brent survived, all of us will encounter something that whispers, “You can’t.”
The impossible situation might come in the form of a diagnosis, an unimaginable loss, a brutal failure, a broken relationship, or, yes, even a chainsaw that won’t start.
When it does, Brent offers us a wonderfully uncomplicated response: Believe. Try. Then try again.
And when you find your way through, tell someone what you learned.
Because your story may belong to you, but what you’ve learned from it may be the miracle someone else needs to believe is still possible in theirs.
My friends, if you’re not sure whether miracles happen, just look in the mirror. Realize that your life is a gift. Miracles still happen. And the best is yet to come
Today is your day. Live Inspired.
9 replies on “The Miracles All Around Us”
I never thought that my life was a miracle until I read this story. My story is long so I will make it short. My father was an alcoholic and abusive mentally, physically and sexually which left relationships for me going forward was not good as I was always searching for love and thinking that physical love is how you received love not only in committed relationships but inside my heart. I got married and have two beautiful daughters and then he cheated on me. Unfortunately that left me devastated and I married two more times only because I picked the wrong men. I didn’t have a role model to show me. That has left much guilt inside of me and hard to move forward. With much counseling and accepting Jesus Christ as my savior. I got through it and I am a survivor. Unfortunately, I was left with insecurities and believing that I was worthy. I am 67 years old now and I still feel that but I also have come a long long way. If I could help anybody with my story I would.
Barbie,
Can you share the foot massager Amazon link. I think it would help my husband’s foot neuropathy. Thanks
Barbie,
Can you share the foot massager Amazon link. I think it would help my husband’s foot neuropathy. Thanks
I live with depression. I’m finding that there are ways to get inspired to live and help others, even when I feel there isn’t much I can do. There is always something you can do to help one other person. Thanks for the inspiration.
Great story John! When there’s a will, there’s a way. When there’s a way, there is Hope! With hope and determination and GOD’S presence- “Miracles” will happen!
When Jim was in chemo, we would sometimes wait for hours for the doctors who are always running late. He would get antsy while I enjoyed the waiting room, visiting with other patients.
One day, doc was WAY LATE. Everyone was getting annoyed when someone mentioned neuropathy in their hands/feet (common side effect) and I mentioned a foot massager we had found that gave Jim relief. Started sharing the Amazon info with several other patients which led them to ask “what kind of cancer does he have?” When I told our new friends that Jim has beaten stage four colon cancer TWICE, the atmosphere in the waiting room changed.
Men who were grumbling in not so silent ways wanted to know “how?” and started sharing. They became less annoyed and more in tune. We eventually left without seeing the doc because we didn’t want to take up her time and make others wait longer for her to say “scans are great, blood is good” so we asked her to call us later.
That night at 8:30, she called, still at Barnes. While she did report Jim was still cancer-free, she was more focused on our conversations in the waiting room because she said all her afternoon patients came in asking about foot massagers and saying “do you know there’s a guy out there who beat this TWICE?” She said patients who normally were all negative had found a glimmer of hope.
It reminded me of something my Weight Watchers coach said once about the importance of the meetings – sometimes you need the meeting and sometimes the meeting needs you.
You never know when your story is going to light the path for someone else.
Have a great week, friend. I’ll be rereading In Awe while staring at the Gulf!!
Thank you for this story of hope and resilience. I met an American missionary couple last week and also exemplified an “against all odds” story. I will share this with them too. If you want their information for a future interview, get in touch.
Love this story !!
Incredible story of hope