On Friday night Chris Saunders was killed in a car accident on I-15 at about 2 a.m. He had been drinking and lost control of his car.
Chris grew up across the street from me from the ages of 1 - 12. We were best friends and I kept in touch with him when he moved to Bountiful until he was about 15. Entering high school and making new friends I stopped talking with him and fell out of contact for 12 years, until 2 weeks ago. For sometime I had the feeling that I needed to help Chris as I knew he had fallen away from the church and was living differently than he knew he should. I was busy with work and home life and put off getting a hold of Chris. Finally two weeks ago my sister Carly got me his number and I talked to him on the phone. We planned to get together for lunch in a couple of weeks. Obviously that's not going to happen now. Instead of lunch with him this week I'll be attending his funeral on Thursday afternoon.
I'm not telling this story to make you sad or feel bad for me. I'm telling you this to emphasize a point that President Monson has made over and over again. "Promptings of the Spirit are not to be postponed." I am glad for the opportunity I had to speak to Chris once more before he died. For my own sanity I need to learn from this experience and move on, but I will forever regret not having contacted Chris at the FIRST prompting of the Spirit. There are a lot of scenarios I can imagine that could have happened had I done that, each as possible as the next. I take comfort in the fact that in the short time between my contact with Chris and his death, his family and my family have also had more contact, as we were all very close, and I hope that we can help them during this time.
So again I echo our prophet; Promptings of the Spirit are not to be postponed. Err on the side of caution and act when your brain tells you it might not be a big deal. Because the one time it may be a big deal it may be to late to act.
I hope to see Chris again in the next life and hope I can be of some help to him there.
6 comments:
i love you honey! you are such an amazing man.
Good luch this week. Who knows maybe you did what you were meant to. Just letting him know that you cared all these years. You may never know the comfort that may have brought him. We never know the power and influence we can have on others. Remember the Lord is in control. Your friendship may not have changed his untimely death, but it may have changed his heart and allow him and his family to feel peace.
Thank you for telling us this Joey. I'm sorry to hear about what happened to your friend. I'm grateful to know we will all be reunited again someday. I will definitely think twice before ignoring a prompting. Thank you.
I'm so sorry. My prayers are with you and his family tonight.
I loved your testimony about this. And it's so true about the promptings of the spirit.
Thanks so much.
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