I told her, “Get out of bed every morning
and put one foot in front of the other.”
Find out how words saved a life; watch our Truth in Two (full text below).
Support MarkEckel.com (here). Find the MarkEckel.com YouTube Channel (here). Mark is President of The Comenius Institute (website). Dr. Eckel spends time with Christian young people in public university (1 minute video), teaching at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis, and interprets culture from a Christian vantage point (1 minute video). Consider becoming a Comenius patron (here). [First published here.] Picture credit: Luke Renoe, Snappy Goat
FULL TEXT
A student emailed me asking if we could meet via Zoom. I vividly remember that night and conversation. Our online chat was unlike any other virtual meeting I have ever had. The young woman was visibly shaken. She recounted any number of negative experiences, including the loss of her job because she stood up against discrimination in the workplace.
She was so distraught about her life that she considered ending it.
I had listened to her for the first half hour and saw the darkness that enveloped her. In the second half of our hour meeting, I began to speak of hope. I explained that my Christian faith gave me hope. I told her stories about my family and workplace injustices done to me. But I pleaded with her not to give up. I said,
“Get out of bed every morning, thinking, ‘I just need to put one foot in front of the other.”
She spent the last 30 minutes of our conversation in tears.
Honestly, I did not know what would happen. I prayed for my student over the coming weeks. We kept in contact and she finished the semester. But I wondered about her future.
Fast forward two years. This spring I received an email out of the blue from that student. In part, this is what she said,
I’m reaching out to you because I wanted to thank you. I graduated this past December. I owe a great deal of that to you. You inspired me in such a way that no one else has. Your stories pushed me to finish and not give up. I came very close to giving up. Your words inspired me. I am applying to graduate school next year and I owe that to you.
A teacher does not always know what impact his words will have on a student. Sometimes, those words may just save a life. For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, president of The Comenius Institute, personally thankful for the life-giving hope of Jesus.