Prologue: Faith is a belief in something that you have never seen or experienced. It is through the deep spiritual enlightenment of faith that you develop understanding and acceptance. The trials big or small are exactly what is needed to confirm each unique individuals understanding and hone it into what is known as faith.
God has [placed a seed of] faith in each and every one of us. He intervenes in our lives and that helps us develop our understanding and acceptance of him into a rock solid faith. Usually it isn’t in the manner we would wish it to happen but when it does happen you know and life is never the same! -Brian C. Grenier
Born Brian J. Boyle and baptized at the Saint Ignatious Church in Prince George’s County, Maryland. “We were a Catholic family and religion was always part of our life at times more than others but our belief in God was always strong. Well, we thought we had faith, the test hadn’t come yet though.”
A MOMENT IN TIME
It was a warm summer day in Maryland, I had just finished swim practice and was heading home for some food and a planned weight room session. My confidence in the future was at an all time high as I mentally ticked off my past accomplishments and my future plans, I felt invincible!
Traveling through the intersection of Ripley and Poorhouse in Welcome, Maryland my environment suddenly became engulfed in the horrific sounds of metal, glass and flesh being twisted, crushed and pulverized into something it was never intended to be, the screeching-snarling noise was overwhelming! Then:
Nothing
There is a place where nothing exists, it is darker than dark and is light at the same time, it is a void where there is no noise but all noise exists. As I seemingly traveled through this place I felt peaceful but detached. I noticed that there was love that existed along side hate and the nothingness had fullness, however my trip was to be short and tiring.
While I can never say for sure, the memories I had while comatose are sporadic but they follow the story line of a long journey. Faith to me is a sustaining force that is not something that you can see or handle But, it follows you wherever you go making the paradigm of your life steady. The memories in retrospect seem to have been lessons or a review of lessons I may have learned in the past. While I can never put my finger on it I believe that God was preparing me for a greater journey.
– A race against the clock: When EMTs arrived on the scene they had 15 minutes to extract Brian from his car and fly him by Medivac to the shock – trauma unit.
– The powerful impact of the truck dealt a heavy blow to Brian’s body: heart knocked across chest, loss of spleen and gallbladder, kidney failure, every organ damaged, collapsed lungs, shattered clavicle/pelvis/ribs, 60% blood loss, loss of 100 pounds in the hospital, 14 operations, 36 blood transfusions, 13 plasma treatments, pneumonia, kidney dialysis, coma for two months on life support and ventilator.
– The course to recovery: Physical Therapy began in the intensive care unit. Exercises included squeezing a ball, shaking a hand, smiling and moving toes. Later, the progress began to be focused on sitting upright in a chair, lifting legs, lifting arms, moving hands and tying shoes. After several months Brian’s therapy made use of stretch/resistance bands, wheelchair work and a walker. He wasn’t able to get back on his feet without support for awhile, but he was determined to walk again.
THEN THINGS CHANGED
I started noticing that there appeared to be a change in the nothingness around me. There was a bright light-not blinding but just a pure white light diametrically opposed to the swirling void that permeated the nothingness.
This light enveloped me and formed what for all intensive purposes was a tunnel. The light seemed to exude energy, intelligence and love as I became engulfed in it. I was startled when I became aware that someone was sitting next to me talking on their cell phone. There were other people sitting in the tunnel too, some how I didn’t find this strange. I really didn’t recognize any of them but felt like I knew them all. I turned to the person on the cell phone and I asked him if he could call my parents and tell them that I loved them, when I turned away satisfied my request was completed I was staring at a bank of medical instruments, inside of a hospital ICU room.
LIFE IS A DAILY ADVENTURE
I have a friend that says that everyday above ground is a good day. I have to agree! I cannot claim that the ensuing months and years, after I was given my life back by God, have been easy. I look at them as the application of a blacksmiths forging fire as he tempers steel. The person that I was going into this trial is not the person that eventually emerged. Many things changed, not so much in a physical way but more in the way I view things. No matter what path I looked down a dramatic realization always hit me; this gift of life from God was for me, but no longer about me.
There were a lot of people that never gave up on me. First and foremost there was God. While my faith and resolve faded at times, His presence never did. My family took comfort in the fact that things only happen for Gods glory. My parents always presented a positive front and while this worked while I lay in hospital bed, I know now that they were stretched to the limit, their faith strained to the snapping point like a super taut elastic band. The cool thing about elastic bands though, is that they snap back.
God has gifted numerous people that I have encountered over the years with the healing gift of modern medicine. The selfless application of their skill in the most dire of situations made me realize just how precious the gift of life is. Some people would say that I had won an incredible victory of life over death, nothing could be further from the truth! True, I had been given a gift of life and now the responsibility of survivorship was placed squarely on my shoulders. I didn’t win, I was moved forward with the grace of God! Now I needed to pay things forward.
People often ask me if I prayed at all, I guess it depends on what you call prayer. God only asks for honesty so here I have to be truthful—I didn’t pray in a traditional sense but I did have these huge conversations with God. I invoked the intersession of Christ and the Holy Spirit. This is my faith. It felt normal. I think this is what it means to be a follower of Christ. A simple truth is now very clear – the plan God has for my life is unfolding. I could never have charted this course myself.
EFFORT AND SUCCESS
Just a few months before the 2007 Iron Man I was in my dorm room at St Mary’s College feeling despondent. I had reached most of the critical goals I needed to regain my life. Simple things like eating by myself, walking and talking were the initial goals that equaled success. Now I was swimming again, lifting weights and running. But something deep inside me knew that this was not the only thing I was destined to accomplish in order to move forward with Gods plan.
In an inspired moment I fired off an e-mail to the directors of the Ford Iron Man telling them my story and my long time goal of competing in the greatest test of faith, perseverance and endurance. Looking back only the grace of God could have delivered the e-mail that I received back from them. I was given a green light and a slot to compete along with the greatest athletes in the world! Finally I would be given the forum to share my miraculous story. Men and woman train and sacrifice their whole lives to enter this event. While I have always been a well trained athlete, I was given this opportunity with the application of faith and an e-mail that only God could have inspired.
In plain words — nothing comes without effort and hard work. Even in the dictionary success follows effort, it is a simple concept. I believe every person has a reason for being. God has a plan for each and every one of us. Through faith we accept this and hopefully move in the right direction applying all the effort we can in order to attain the success God has ordained for us.
You may never know, during your life on earth, how the goals of God’s plan are reached. Some times it could just be through speaking a kind word that change happens in the life of someone who was deeply depressed and lonely. Perhaps your ministry will reach thousands with the message of faith, hope and perseverance. While it may be hard to identify tangible results that measure spiritual impact, I think there is an internal peace and assurance we gain by being moved by the Spirit of God. It is what gives me motivation to move things forward.
During the race I had all kinds of conversations with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit and yea these were somewhat formal as the weight and intensity of such a grueling endeavor hit home. You can hardly think during the Ironman race. But there was always this motor in the back of my mind, “Our Father who art in Heaven”.
Start with a 2.4 mile swim in the choppy Pacific Ocean. Get out of the water, run through a shower, jump onto a bicycle and peddle for 112 miles in the lava desert. After that, don’t stop yet. To finish you’ll need to run a hot, windy and steep 26.2 mile marathon run. The cutoff time to complete the race takes 17 hours, which is midnight. Brian’s time: 14:42. This race is so physically taxing that competitors don’t just drink during the race. They must regularly eat while racing. Even then, the race pushes the limits of human capability. For this reason the Ironman challenges the mental capacity and spiritual strength of participants like no other.
I crossed the finish line in Kona Hawaii. It was one man against the clock. However, I was never alone. With me were the hopes and dreams of others. Dreams that would be challenged – just like me. I want to spread the word — you are never truly alone, God is always by your side!
This condensed story of Brian J Boyle’s journey has been taken out of numerous conversations and e-mails we have shared over the past 10 months or so. Brian and I have shared the same journey on different levels. Yet, devastating physical tragedy challenged both of our lives. It is our goal to inspire as many people as we can. It is the mission God has set forth for us to accomplish.
Watch the NBC segment about Brian from the 2007 Ford Ironman World Championship. [This video clip comes from Brian’s YouTube page.]
