The Rest of the Story is a follow up to the courageous stories told in God is Bigger Than Your Grief of amazing Christians that drew closer to Christ through their grief.
In the chapter 1, “Will I see Them Again?”, Brian shares the story of the unexpected loss of his young wife and the way Christ carried him through the pain into His glorious healing.
On July 7, 1998, my wife Tatia died in a car accident. I was 25 years old and been married almost 2 years. I wasn’t ready to deal with the grief and pain of losing someone that I had loved so much. The police officer took me to see her at the funeral home. I remember kissing her forehead and telling her that I loved her. I had never been as sad as I was that evening. The shock of this new reality put me at the lowest point emotionally I had ever been in my life. As I stood by her body in the funeral home, I knew that I lost her and that I could not go through this moment in time alone.
Thankfully I didn’t. God was there to carry me. He picked me up and carried me for as long as I needed to be carried. God allowed me to grieve, He allowed me to cry, and He allowed me to be loved. He carried me as I moved forward in my life not knowing where I was going or what plans He would have for me. Before He let me know what His plans were for me, I had to strengthen my faith in Him. He gave me many signs to reassure me that He was there and that I would be OK. I learned a lesson in patience. I had seen what He had done for Tatia and now knew the torch had been passed and it was my turn.
I was nervous at times, but I knew that I was not alone. Going through this time, I knew God had a plan, but I had to wait for the fog to lift in order to see it. The fog lifted the day I married Jennie on July 1, 2000. Jennie and I both had to deal with life changing moments in our life. When we got married, our lives were no longer spent healing from those moments, but instead knew that God’s plan was coming to light. The Holy Spirit planted a seed in our hearts. It was a way of life and it was scripture. We didn’t know it was a scripture until years later, but when we read that scripture and looked back at our life together and saw how that was our mission, we knew that we were following God’s will. That scripture is 2nd Corinthians 1:1-4
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
Jennie and I received that comfort from God and from others close to us including family and friends. It was now our turn to go share that comfort with others. Jennie wrote a song called “Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled”. It was based on John 14:1. That scripture became a foundation in our lives. The scripture reads:
1"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.
It was the first Christian song she ever wrote and a song that has touched the lives of hundreds of thousands of people all over the world. That song was key to the success we have experienced in Christian music. We are devoted to sharing peace and comfort, but also sharing God’s grace to adults and children, not just through my recording company Ari Son Records, but in our daily lives. Our goal is to help them have a solid foundation in Christ so when they face their life changing moment, they will have safe place to fall...right into the arms of Jesus.
We are blessed with a beautiful daughter. Our daughter Emma Lou has been a great source of inspiration. Her unconditional love and sweet spirit has been a true blessing in our life. Our families are very important to us. Even though we lives 9-12 hours away, we see have many opportunities to see them regularly with our travel schedule. Our parents, brothers and sisters, and best of all, our new nieces and nephews have shown us how God continues to bless our lives and gives us many reasons to be thankful.
For more information on Ari Son Records go to www.Arisonrecords.com.