(below from http://www.islandchapel.com/SERMONS/Sep ... 202002.htm which has his name misspelled on their site)
Let me share, as I close today, one more story from one of my heros. I don't know him personally, but I would like to meet him some day. He calls himself "Lucky Jim". Jim MacLaren was 22 years old, just graduated from Yale.
He was a star athlete and a football player. He was driving his motorcycle down 5th Ave. in New York on a balmy October evening and feeling so exhilarated. This is how his story begins: Jim MacLaren doesn't have any memory of the first accident. He can't tell you what it feels like to be hit by a New York City bus and thrown 89 feet into the air - to have your bones shattered and your legs crushed - to have your organs pulverized - and to be pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital - because he can't recall any part of it. (I read that part of the story and thought to myself - been there - done that). He worked terribly hard at his recovery and was almost manic about it!
Eight years later, after this accident, he was competing as a triathlete with one leg. Now a triathleon consists of swimming 2+ miles, bicycling 112 miles, and a 26 mile run. Jim MacLaren, "Lucky Jim", competing with healthy men as a triathlete and excelling. He was the fastest one-legged distance runner in history. The story goes on when one day, while competing in a triathleon in Southern California, during the bicycle phase (where he was at the head) he sees a car. Somehow one car had been let through the blocked streets and it hit Jim MacLaren head on, threw him into a light post, and snapped his neck. He ended up becoming a quadriplegic.
Apparently there are different degrees of quadriplegic, and he was considered an incomplete quadriplegic because he had some minimal use of his arms (he could raise them just a slight bit). He could bend slightly at the waist, and he had sensation (feeling) in his body which made it possible for him to take care of himself eventually. It also made it possible for him to live in excruciating pain every day of his life.
Again he began to work day after day going through the therapy and exercise programs. He disciplined his body and mind, and everything seemed to be going so well. "Lucky Jim" was doing it again, but behind the facade something else was happening. Jim came to the point where he hit a wall because he realized that regardless of how hard he worked (he could be in therapy 10 hours a day), there was no possible way he would ever climb past this plateau. He would never have control of his bowels again - he would never be able to walk again - he would never be able to raise his arms above his head again.
When that reality hit him, his life fell apart, he became addicted to cocaine and alcohol and his life began to spiral down. Eventually, Jim had to face the choice of whether he wanted to die or whether he wanted to live.
It was then he began to look inward (and to look upward) and to come to terms with who he was and where God fit into his life. Finally he even accepted and embraced his limitations and moved on with his life.
Now on a good day, Jim MacLaren can get out of bed, shave, shower, dress himself, clear out his bowels and attach his catheter in 3 ½ hours (about the same amount of time it took him to run a marathon). I think about that when I complain about the fact that I can't reach down to tie my left shoe yet.