Let It Go

Alright alright so I know what you're thinking from the title

tribute to Frozen

Nah.  Not today.  

As cute as that movie is and all, I'm actually talking about the book Let it Go written by Christopher Williams.  For those of you who don't know the story or the book, it is about a man from Utah who tragically lost his pregnant wife, son and daughter in a car accident when they were suddenly hit by a drunk driver.  

Christopher is an LDS member and writes about his experience and points of view of what happened to him and how he was able to forgive the drunk driver so quickly after killing his family. 

If you haven't read it I strongly encourage you to. 

It will make you reevaluate methods of forgiving people and reasons for forgiving people.  

There are just a few points I would like to make regarding books vs any other kind of media.  

With TV and video games, and computer, it is easy for people to have a 'dead mind' while viewing those types of media.  It is easy for our eyes to be watching something and our brain to kind of be in a tuned out mode.  

I definitely am guilty of watching TV purely for that 'brain dead' experience and to just turn my brain off and relax. 

However when reading books, your brain has less of an option to be in that inactive mode. 

Granted with some college books I feel like all I am doing is looking at a mass of words and my brain isn't absorbing one spec of what I am reading, 

However with good books about true stories, reading takes you into a whole other world.  

It pushes your imagination and thinking processes to go somewhere else and to paint an entire picture or an entire world of what is going on.  

I definitely get lost in books that I enjoy.  I get so caught up in the story so much that it sometimes effects my moods for the rest of the day.  

which can be either good or bad. 

But there is something about this book.  

It is heart-wrenching to say the least, but instead of making me horribly sad, it is a book that gives an incredible amount of hope.  

Chris Williams is a very strong man and the ability he had to forgive the drunk boy so quickly still astounds me.  However, his words and the reasons he gives for being able to have such a positive perspective on this horrible tragedy make you really evaluate and rethink grudges you hold and reasons you have had for not forgiving someone.  

Everything else in the world that you have gotten upset over seems so silly and irrelevant when someone has gone through all that he has, and still had the ability to go about his life and be strong for his oldest son (who was not in the car) and one other son who was the only other survivor.  

I know this is kind of a deep post but this book literally changed the way I think about my perspectives.  

Chris has such an incredibly way of writing and thinking.  I think he has given a few talks to youth groups and if i'm right I think there is even a movie coming out about this whole story, however, because of the 'inactive brain' syndrome that we often get, I would encourage anyone who reads this to get the book! 

It will not disappoint! 

That's all for now!

E.J. Hunt