He went from a 11-year-old kid playing sports and loving life, to one enduring 3 months in a coma near death, waking up totally blind, hearing impaired, and too weak to even sit up. A young child’s dream of playing professional golf or baseball was crushed in the blink of an eye. Then there was 7 years of grueling physical therapy just to be able to walk again. The long journey from a blind sick kid lying helplessly in bed, to a college grad, motivational speaker, best-selling author, and triathlete has been a challenging one to say the least. A life that was definitely a work in progress was now showing ever growing glimmers of the masterpiece that is inside of us all.

As you may have guessed, that sick little boy mentioned above was me. After losing all of my eyesight, much of my hearing, and being confined to a bed due to bacterial meningitis, I didn’t know what to think. What was left for a totally blind sick kid who couldn’t even walk? This question often consumed me as I cried myself to sleep night after night, wailing out to God in anguish.

I didn’t get the booming audible response from God I had wished for telling me that I would be okay, and somehow be miraculously healed, but I did get an answer, one much more subtle, and very powerful. Over the years I have come to realize the answer has embodied the spirit of Sophia Bush’s quote. Despite my total blindness, hearing impairment, and physical limitations, I began to see my status as a Masterpiece. This world wasn’t done with me, there was a reason I was still alive.

Friends you are all Masterpieces of this world with unique talents, abilities and a purpose. Think of yourself as a puzzle piece that completes the puzzle of life. Without you this world would be incomplete. It’s because of the billions of “masterpieces” that make up our world, that I know the best is yet to come!