"To God be the Glory"

In an effort to stay within budget, I volunteered to build the cabinets for the Family Life Center kitchen at the Friendship Baptist Church in Clanton.  The church bought the materials and I furnished the labor.  I made them of oak with raised panel doors.  Along with the cabinets, I had built an island for serving food and fashioned oak underneath the stainless steal sink to hide the plumbing.  It was a big job, as was the entire project.

As I unloaded the cabinets on a Saturday workday, one of my deacons noticed that I had a worried look.  With apprehension, he asked if I was okay.  I think he thought that I was frustrated over the Family Life Center project and my involvement with it.  I had been a subcontractor of sorts for it and saved the church 18-20% of the total construction cost.

I told him that my thoughts were with an old friend.  The night before I received word that my friend JJ had been involved in a terrible accident where he worked.  JJ was severely burned having third degree from his waist down, second degree from his neck down, and first degree on his face.  Prognosis was that he would loss everything from his waist down.

JJ, a wheel inspector for ABC Rail in Calera, stepped on a four-inch gas line in performance of his duties.  The gas line fueled the heat treatment department for the hardening or tempering of train wheels.

As JJ stepped on the gas line, it broke and gas filled JJ’s overalls and then ignited from the flames used in the heat treatment.  Witnesses saw JJ rocket into the air about fifteen feet and then fell about thirty feet onto a concrete floor below.

Had JJ worn pants with a belt, he would have lost every thing from waist down according in ABC Rail Safety officials.  University of Alabama Birmingham hospital doctors said the quick response of the ABC Rail Safety team covering JJ’s burns with shaving cream and the rescue team with the airlift unit saved his life.  The shaving cream sealed and cleansed the burns.

When my deacon friend asked me if I was okay, I did not know much about JJ at that time.  My information was that JJ was in critical condition and he may not live.  I told my deacon friend that I did not know how to pray for JJ.  I did not know whether to pray that JJ live or that Lord take him.  I wanted to install the cabinets and get to UAB hospital burn unit to see my friend.

JJ and I had been friends all our lives.  We were the same age, but were in different classes at school due to our birthdays.  I cannot remember our teenage years with being around one another with baseball, football, and basketball, watching JJ sail off the swing and dive into the Little Cahaba at Bull Dog Bend, or taking a ride in his Dodge Super Bee.  I really think he came to the house to see my sister!

JJ loved playing cow pasture football because his mother would not allow him to play organized football.  I have thrown JJ so many touchdown passes that I am afraid to give you a number.  One Saturday we played football, supposedly light tackle, against some boys from Isabella at their high school football field.  I remember JJ said he was so sore after the game that he could hardly go to work on midnights crawling from his Super Bee to his job on the overhead crane.  We played football well into our thirties.

JJ had his share of troubles.  His wife had been sickly for years and Aetna Insurance had paid the limit for her hospital stays and surgeries.  JJ told me one time that he owed almost eighty-five thousand dollars to Brookwood hospital in Birmingham.  His eldest son got involved in the Gothic culture and became a drug addict.  That son later died in a drug related suicide.

After I installed the cabinets, I visited JJ at UAB.  I will never forget the sight I saw.  JJ did not look human.  Swollen and pumped full with fluids, JJ’s head and body was swollen beyond recognition.  His eyes were as big as a man’s fist and his ears were as large as a man’s cupped hand.  We cried.  I will never forget that deforming image of my friend.

For weeks, I visited JJ at UAB’s burn unit.  JJ suffered excruciating pain from the burns, from shaving good skin for skin grafts, and from the shoulder that sustained damage when he hit the concrete floor.  On one visit, I witnessed JJ break into a sweat as he tried to stretch a rubber hose with the injured shoulder.  He struggled to pull it an inch or two. 

Most people thought JJ would never work again, but he did.  Instead of taking a medical disability, JJ would work at ABC Rail until it closed.  Then he worked at a pipe shop.  He remains an avid sports fan, playing a lot of golf.

JJ has been a deacon in his church for many years.  I had the privilege of doing a marriage renewal for his wife and him.  I was with him at his son’s funeral.  Through all that he has been, JJ has taught me faithfulness and hope.

But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.  Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.  And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God (Romans 8:25-27 KJV).

I remember being in agony as I prayed for JJ.  Do I pray he live, or for the Lord to receive him?  I told the deacon at Friendship that I finally prayed, Lord may Your will be done and You receive glory.