Greg Simmons’ story
Ravi Zacharias (www.rzim.org) likes to share this powerful story below during his lectures and when preaching.
Mr. Zacharias and his team were staying in a house with an elderly couple during one of his speaking engagements. He sensed heaviness in that beautiful house. There seemed to be loneliness in the splendor of the home. The man of the house narrated a tragic incident that had happened in his son’s life.
His son, Greg Simmons, was a highly successful business man. He wanted to make a lot of money and retire early so that he could serve God. He bought himself some farmland in the highlands of North Carolina. He had five children. The youngest was an infant and the oldest 12. One day, his oldest son asked him to take him and his siblings to see a waterfall nearby. So Greg and his four older children along with another friend and his son set off. As they were climbing the slippery terrain of the hill, Greg put his hand out to stop them and he slowly proceeded ahead to test the soil. As he walked ahead, suddenly, the soft soil gave way and Greg fell down the waterfall and died a violent death.
Here is a letter that his 12 year old son wrote to his friend, Ms. Wheeland, who lived in Atlanta.
Dear Ms. Wheeland,
You don’t know how much your family helped form my father and who he was. He admired your husband and you a lot. He would talk about how good your faith was with God. He tried to be as generous as you all are to the church and to many other good things. Since his death, his true friends have been revealed. Your family was at the top of the list. You are a great source of energy for my mother and I. My father loved you very much and was always trying to be like you. My father was like one of the three men in the Bible who were given the talents by Jesus. One went out and invested them and multiplied them. One took some and came back with nothing. The last one buried them and did nothing with them. All three returned within a few days and the Lord was pleased with the two who had multiplied. But the third one had come back with same amount. The Lord was disappointed with him because he didn’t try. My father multiplied and lost and gained many things but he was always trying to please the Lord. He got a lot, Ms. Wheeland from your family.
My dad was a risk taker. That’s just the way he was. Genesis 1:1 says, ‘In the beginning God..’ That was what mattered to my dad. No one will understand how or why my father fell into the waterfall. Do yourself a favor. Don’t try to figure it out, please.
My dad died for his children. He was making sure it was safe for us to come up. You may hear different things but only six people saw it. Only three understood what really happened. Ms. Wheeland, I am one of those.
My mom lost her treasure chest, her husband. Most of the others lost Greg. You lost a best friend. My grandparents lost their son. John and Barbara lost their brother. But Ms. Wheeland, it is different for me. Totally different for me. He was my best friend, my model, my idol. When I got my last glimpse of him falling down the waterfall, I lost my most prized man on earth. He was my father, my one and only dad. I had a dream three nights ago, but it wasn’t a dream. My father is alright. He told me himself. Thank you, Ms. Wheeland for being a true friend. I love u a lot. (End of letter)
Conexión wishes all our readers who are FATHERS, like Greg Simmons was to his son, a most wonderful Father’s Day. For those that are not like Greg, we pray that you will find it in yourselves to change and to find a way to be the kind of father that your child and that all children throughout the world deserve and need.
NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: This coming June 19th we celebrate Father’s Day in the United States. By nature, most men on earth have the ability to procreate and have children. But being able to “make a child” does not make a man a “Dad”. Tragically, there are far too many individuals in this world who have kids whom they have abandoned and could care less to offer them the financial support, and even worse, care less about offering the emotional support that only true fathers can give. This article is dedicated to the real men, those that are FATHERS in the true meaning of the word, whether they are the natural dads of their kids or adoptive dads. Happy Father’s Day to my Papá especially!
- Other articles By Ravi:
- Ravi’s Quotes
- RAVI’S QUOTES
- Ravi’s Quotes
