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Jason Lester: Resurrected Dreams

CBN.com Jason Lester was raised to be a champion. His father was his role model and coach - professional athletics was the ultimate goal.

“I could see that he was molding me to become that athlete that possibly he wasn’t or possibly that he wanted to be.  Sports was a lifestyle, I didn’t know anything different. I never had toys growing up as a kid. My toy was a baseball bat and a glove; I remember sleeping with my baseball glove under my pillow at night.”

But when he was twelve years old Jason was hit by a car that ran a red light.

“When I got hit, I flew up on the windshield, I flew 130 feet in the air. The next thing I know, I’m in the middle of the road trying to get up. There was a bunch of people around me telling me to stay down. I didn’t understand why they were telling me to stay down.  I’m like, ‘No, I’m ok,’  but I kept falling.”

Jason was rushed to the emergency room. He had 21 broken bones, a collapsed lung and his right arm was paralyzed.  Dreams of professional athletics died in that intersection

“‘Why, why me? Why did I get hit? Why wasn’t it one of my buddies? Why was I the one that got picked out of this group to have to suffer like this?’ I remember seeing my dad at my bedside a lot. I saw this worry in him. It was a black hole. It was a very, very dark moment. I didn’t see myself coming out of that. I thought that’s the way it was going to be for the rest of my life.”

Tragedy struck again later that year when his father died of a heart attack in the middle of the night.

“My father, my best friend, my role model, my buddy, he was my buddy. Gone. It didn’t make any sense so what else did I have to live for?”

His uncle tried to tell Jason that in the midst of his pain and confusion God loved him and had a plan.

“The word G-O-D made no sense. Because here he was trying to explain to me that God was a loving God and that He had a perfect plan for my life. Here I thought that my life was shattered.  I didn’t want to know God.  I didn’t want to have a relationship with this God. I thought God was causing these things.”

In his teens he devoted himself to running and physical fitness as an attempt to avoid the same fate of his father. But he was really running from his past.

“’The truth was Jason you suffered an accident. You do not have the use of one of your arms.’  I never dealt with that. I thought that if I could run harder and longer and keep myself busy I never would have to deal with that truth.”

In his twenties he moved to Los Angeles and became a professional sports agent

“If I couldn’t be a professional athlete I wanted to work with professional athletes. Every day when I was sitting there I was like, ‘I wonder what would have happened if I didn’t get hit. Would this be me? Would I be gracing these walls or would I be a professional athlete as well?’

Questions about his past continued to torment him. Until one night he saw a Christian TV program and stopped to watch. The pastor seemed to talk right to Jason.

“It was something that stuck in my head. Finding my purpose, my purpose for life,  and that God has a perfect plan for our lives. Here I was like, ‘My plan’s been kind of messed up.  You know it’s been all over the map. It has had highs and lows and a lot of lows.’  The real thing that spoke to my heart was that, ‘Yes my earth father was gone, but my Father, my real Father was still here.’  He could answer those questions that I had.”

Jason started going to church and soon after gave his life to God.

“The puzzle that I was always trying to solve on my own and giving my life to the Lord and letting Him solve it for me was this huge weight off of my shoulder. It was no longer me trying to figure things out. I gave it to the Lord. It was just this huge peace that came upon me. One of the things that He did was made me go back to twelve and mourn that loss, and then mourn the loss of my father. He wanted to heal me from the ground up. ‘I’m going to bring you back, but I need you to heal because I have blessings that I want to give you.’”

“Why I went through the things I went through were actually just challenges to build me up and make me stronger.  It’s interesting that the things I’m doing today are challenges.”

Today Jason faces the most intense athletic challenges imaginable.  He is part of a small group of elite athletes that participate in a competition known as ‘The Ultraman.’  The three day race consists of a six-mile swim, two hundred and sixty mile bike ride and a fifty-two mile run. Jason does it without the use of his right arm. In 2008 he was the first challenged athlete to finish ‘The Ultraman.’  He gives all the glory to God.

“First and foremost I want to thank God for giving me the strength to endure such a brutal event.”

“If I see a challenge coming on I say this is going to make me stronger. I’m going to become a better person and a better man out of this, so I’ve learned to embrace it.”

In 2009 Jason won ESPN’s espy award for best athlete with a disability. In his book ‘Running on Faith’  he talks about how God’s perfect plan for his life finally makes sense.

“All these things I went through, You were right that Your plan is perfect.  No matter what the peaks and valleys that I go through, I know that God’s got my back.  I know that ‘all things work together for good.’ I’m just excited that God’s using me as a vessel to travel the world and be global and be a global inspiration. We all have an opportunity to be a global inspiration because we all have a story. We all have a testimony. We are all vessels for God.”

“Most people look at Jesus as being some person beyond the sky that you talk to.  But to me, He’s my lifeline.  He’s there with me.  He’s a presence.  He’s the Lord.  God is my Father.  I’m going to show my appreciation to Him by living the rest of my life for Him.”

Can God change your life?

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