Live Inspired Vlog 205: What Does Courage Look Like?

For Me, It Looks Like My New Friend Jake

Well good morning, my friends.

Welcome to Live Inspired with John O’Leary, this one coming to you live from supposedly (by the look of it, it may be true) the world’s busiest airport.

I’m delighted to spend just a little bit of the Wednesday morning with you here in Atlanta on my way up to South Carolina momentarily.

Yesterday I had the great pleasure of speaking to students in Oklahoma before speaking to a leadership group about 90 minutes north of Oklahoma City.

Before the students, I had a chance to meet an incredible young guy named Jake.

And before I tell you about Jake, I want to ask you what do you think courage looks like?

What does it look like to you?

Who embodies courage?

What does real life and real passion and real vigor, real overcoming look like to you.

Well for me yesterday, it looked like this young man named Jake.

Jake is now a senior in high school, 90 minutes north or so of Oklahoma City, but at age 2 1/2, he was burned terribly in a car fire.

Jake almost died. Jake has significant burns on the left side of his body. He’s lost his toes on his left foot. He’s lost his fingers on his left hand. He’s lost the left side of his face.

And yet, he has refused to lose the glimmer in his eyes, the smile in his face, the dance in his step.

Meeting Jake and spending about an hour with him ahead of time was the highlight for me of not only yesterday, but for sure the week.

Just the way he exuded life.

He also shared a little bit of his story with me. One of the things that Jake shared is that he spent two and a half months or so in a coma.

When he finally came out of it, the very first words he spoke to his mother were these,

“My little sister is walking with Jesus. I saw them.”

Well, why does that matter to any of us?

Because in the car fire that day that he and his family were burned was also a year and a half old sister of his. A little girl named Dusty Rose.

Dusty Rose did not survive the fire, but Jake did not know this. Jake was brought immediately to the hospital. Jake was treated for 2 1/2 months in a coma, and when Jake woke up the very first thing he said was, “I saw my sister, and she was walking hand-in-hand with Jesus.”

This week on our Live Inspired network, we’re unpacking what it means to be here on earth. Why are we here? Where do we return to next?

I had a guy named Dr. Eben Alexander, who wrote a book called Proof of Heaven, on my most recent Live Inspired Podcast. He's a huge international number one bestselling author, great story, different background, different experiences, and in some ways different beliefs than what I have, but I think all of these stories of people who have gone to the other side, if you will, and have returned speak to the truth that it doesn’t end here.

It doesn’t just end when you shut your eyes for the final time, and for me, and I hope for you today my Live Inspired friends, that brings me so much peace and so much hope and also so much encouragement.

To strive boldly, to have a little bit of faith, to have a little bit of belief, and to believe like I think each of you do that the best is yet to come.

So, I encourage you today to check out the Dr. Eben Alexander podcast at the following link: https://johnolearyinspires.com/podcasts/

I encourage you to be more than that, to have the same kind of courage and faith and smile and joy and audacity and love and life that I saw in some 18-year-old boy from Oklahoma named Jake.

He has a tattoo on his right arm and on that tattoo (beautiful tattoo) with the words, Dusty Rose.

Although she’s been gone for 16 years, I think she’s alive and well, not only in the persona of my new friend Jake, but also I think she’s holding hands with God and will continue to for the rest of eternity.

So that brought my friend Jake a lot of peace yesterday. I hope it brings a lot of you peace today.

So, wherever you’re tuning in from, I hope you have a great morning I’m going to sign out from the world’s busiest airport and invite you to sign in to the best of your life.

Because this is your day, my friends. Don’t let it go by.

Live it and live inspired.

See you next time.

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