Racers' Stories
1. Following is the story of Chris, Gladys, Hollie, Jessica and Maria Levasseur (mxstudios.com)
Chris and I got married in April 1983. We have 3 beautiful girls Hollie, Jessica and Maria. Hollie being the oldest, Jessica is the middle daughter, and Maria being the youngest.
Jessica was entering the 3rd grade when we discovered that she had a medical problem. Her chest had sunk in so badly that it was causing breathing problems and putting pressure on her heart and lungs. We saw doctors in New Orleans, Children’s Hospital. They were wonderful doctors. The doctors discovered that she was born with a petus problem, petus is the medical terms for: the cartilage in the chest doesn't grow or doesn't grow correctly. In Jessica's case it didn't grow. She went to Children’s hospital when she was, 8 years old, still in the 3rd grade. They did open chest surgery on her. They put a bar in her chest to help the cartilage grow, which it did. She is now a full grown adult with next to no problems with the repair.
During this time, of course Maria was growing, she was 3 years old. Maria started having problems with dislocation of bones and had her 1st broken bone at 2 1/2 years old, a simple fall to the ground with a baseball bat in each hand. By the time she started kindergarten, Maria had 8 dislocates and 3 broken bones. We took her to several specialists, who told us she would just outgrow this. Chris and I believe them for a while. She continued to break bones. I kept begging the doctors to run a test but they kept informing me that there was no problem, that she would outgrow this. Maria was now in the 4th grade, wanting a dirt bike for the past 5 years. I, Mom finally gave in. She got her bike. She rode that bike for about 8 months and then we let her ride in a race. She was on her third race of her life, at Down South MX; a kid fell in front of her and she ran into him, falling sideways. She then, broke her upper, left arm, tore her knee apart and broke the knee. She broke the bone in her left lower leg. She went through major knee surgeries, 9 months of therapy and 1 1/2 weeks out of therapy. She also broke her pinky finger, length ways. As of this date, June 23, 2004 Maria has broken 18 bones and dislocated 9 times.
One week after that she fractured her growth plate in her left elbow. Finally, doctors said, oh we may have a problem, did a bone density test on her and discovered that she had 80 year old bones.
During the years of Maria having all these problems, Chris went through 4 knee surgeries, 2 per knee, 3 years of physical therapy, escaped colon cancer by the skin of his teeth, and cancer of the throat.
Chris got a back injury from doing electrical work for 20 years, went through plenty of physical therapy for that. The doctors wanted to do surgery, but the risk of him being paralyzed from the surgery was too high, so no surgery, and Chris could not go back to doing electrical, which then led him to doing the videos and photography for a living. He was doing the videos and photography for extra money on the side while doing the electrical, but then, decided to go into business for himself, which causes less back problems for him.
In August of 2004, my oldest daughter Hollie was diagnosed with kidney problems. She was born with a blockage in the tube that runs from the kidney to the bladder. She never had any problems as a child but then when she turned about 17 years old, the problems started kicking in. Her right kidney never functioned, her left kidney doing all the work. Doctors scheduled surgery for her August 16, 2004 to remove the blockage for hope to save the right kidney.
Two days prior to Hollie's surgery, my daughter Jessica was coming home from school with a friend of hers. The friend was driving. Both of them looked down when an un-mounted stereo fell to the floor. The friend veered off to the side of the road hitting wet grass, lost control of the car, flipped 3 1/2 times and Jessica was ejected from the car. She walked away from this wreck with scratches and bruises. The paramedics said most people in this sort of accident would have died. Our daughter didn't. Two days later Chris and I were in New Orleans with Hollie, going through 9 hours of surgery. For now she still has her right kidney but only functions 1/3 %, the left kidney is functioning 2/3 % due to doing all the work for both kidneys. She suffers on a daily basis, but her chance of losing the right kidney is about 90%, and as the days go by has a higher chance of loosing the left.
The past year and a half, I, Gladys have been having heart problems. I was born with a heart defect that the doctors also, just discovered. They are trying different things on me, medicines etc. Some days are good and some days are bad. I am not able to do my normal life activities that I could do 1 1/2 years ago.
Now, don't feel sorry for my family, all that I have stated above has only strengthened my family as a whole, we pray to God daily, and without him, I would not be here today, along with the other members of my family. Any one of the events in this story could have taken each one of us at any time. We are here, we are happy and we are full of God's love, his help, and his guidance.
I would like people to also know how important they are to us, by supporting our company, and being the friends that they are to us today as this has helped us support our family through all of this.
Gladys Levasseur
June, 2006
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.” (2 Corinthians 4:7-10)
“Even youths grown tired and weary and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not grow faint.” (Isaiah 40:30-31)
Note: Chris and Gladys have been doing pictures and videos for over 10 years and keep their prices down as a service to the riders. They are usually under the blue canopy at races in South La.
2. Mark Graham:
THE CHRISTIAN FAITH FROM A COUNSELOR’S PERSPECTIVE
A Speech given by Dr. Mark Graham at a church in Pontchatoula, LA September, 2008
I am a Christian counselor: In that order of priority. All Christians, if they are true Christians, are that [that is, Christian] above all else. They do the best they can to make the living out of the Christian life the top priority of their lives. And of course, we all fall short in that endeavor. And it’s important to admit that we do, and not feel like we have to pretend otherwise. That would be hypocrisy, and I think it’s fair to say we have all, at one time or another, been hypocritical: that is, pretended to be a little farther along in the sanctification process that we actually are. It’s just another of those multitude of sins that God forgives us for, in Christ.
So, if I may, I’d like to talk a little about the Christian faith, as it has come into the particular focus of one who has worked for over 20 years as a counselor. In this setting, as you know, I am blessed with access to the inner, usually secret life of individuals, couples and families. And I cannot express what a tremendous blessing that has been for me. The human mind, heart and psyche is an amazing territory, full of adventure, surprises, treachery, deception and heroism. Thru the eyes of the Holy Spirit, we can see the currents of goodness and evil intertwining like the threads of DNA within all of us. And at this stage of my life I have never been more convinced that Christ is the master synchronizer, healer, unraveller, reconciler, arbitrator, prioritizer, and syncretizer of all human endeavor. Which is simply another way of saying that He is the Messiah. And a personal relationship with Him, along with true koinonia [fellowship with others who follow Him in spirit and truth] is the surest pathway to psycho-spiritual health and maturity.
The core and foundation [the life-blood, if you will] of the Christian life is love: for God and man. When the scribe asked Jesus "What is the first and greatest commandment?" he was essentially asking Him "What is the most important thing in the world for humans to be mindful of?" [How did Jesus answer?] And Jesus answered that we should know, and always be mindful that there is only ONE GOD. And that we are to love Him with our whole being. And that we are to love each other as we love ourselves: unselfishly, as our brothers and sisters; as the children of the God before Whom we will stand in judgement. [Mar 12:28f]. Anything that blocks this process of faith in the One God and love for Him and love for others, cripples the human personality, and is the symptom to be addressed in Christian counseling. Jn 7:38 records Jesus saying, "He who believes in me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." Pathology is anything that blocks or hinders the flow of that living water that flows from God, thru the personalities of those who have received Christ, into the world of human relations. A wonderful question to ask ourselves periodically is "How am I doing at loving my people? What is making it hard for me to love the people that God places in my pathway?" The answer will always be something from your [or their] sinful nature. And since you are not responsible for their sinful nature, God would have you focus on your own. That’s what Jesus was indicating when he gave us the "Beam and Speck" principle. [Mt.7][elaborate]. This is one of the most violated principles in all Christendom. I love this cliché: When you have a critical finger pointed at someone, you have three pointed back at yourself. Criticism and love, like oil and water, don’t exist in the same place at the same time. When you are critical, you are not loving; and that means you are failing to obey the "first and greatest command" of our Lord.
Now we have to differentiate between being critical and being confrontational. Christians have to be confrontational, as Jesus with the Pharisees, and with His disciples at times. But remember, the same Pharisees that He labeled "whited tombstones" who looked good on the outside, but were full of dead bones on the inside, were the ones he prayed forgiveness for on the Cross. Jesus had compassion for these cruel, hypocritical, conniving souls who did not know what they were doing. And we must also. Love must be the driving force underneath any confrontation. Not hatred, frustration, revenge, or simply the desire to see someone hurt. And we confront from the standpoint of humility, because, unlike Jesus, we have not only been the victims of evil, we have also been the perpetrators of it. He could end His prayer with "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." We have to continue with "And forgive me too, for I have not been knowing much about what I do either."
So counseling is a process of keeping the river of living water flowing freely thru a personality. Anxiety [in its myriad of manifestations], depression, weaknesses of character, selfishness, self-centeredness, greed, lust, laziness: all these block or retard the flow of God’s love thru one’s personality.
[Interestingly, low intelligence does not. Some of God’s most compassionate and wise saints couldn’t tell you who the next to last president of the U.S. was. And there are some demons from hell whose IQ is off the charts. This points out one of the major flaws in Amer. culture: In the education of our children, we have focused almost exclusively on intelligence. We want our kids to be smart more than we want them to be good. The Bible says, "Add to faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, then self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love." [2Pet. 1]. There is a progression here—an important one. Kids need first faith, then virtue [goodness, politeness, respect, kindness, generosity—the social graces] then knowledge. Knowledge without faith and virtue is useless at best, dangerous at worst. Please teach your children and grandchildren that goodness is superior to intelligence. God will never judge anyone based on his/her intelligence.]
What I’m presenting here is a paradigm in which counseling is focused sanctification; and as such, it is a work enlightened and empowered by the Holy Spirit. That is why, in the counseling process, I always ask permission to precede with a devotional reading [usually from my book] and a prayer. In the prayer I acknowledge that without God as the "Master Builder", we labor in vain, no matter what we strive to build. If we do not abide in the Vine [Christ] our lives will bear no fruit. And what is impossible with man, is possible with God. I acknowledge that, We can do all things thru Christ Who strengthens us; and that all things are possible with God. I remind myself and my counselee/s that Jesus has promised to be present with any two or more who are gathered in His name; and that we are gathered in His name. His Holy Spirit is our light, leader, and the real Counselor. This is the only source of confidence for me as a counselor—that Jesus is present, and that He loves everyone in the room, and desires the very best for them. It never ceases to amaze me the good that can come when believers open their hearts to Christ’s presence in the here-and-now moment. His perfect Spirit and perfect Love and perfect Wisdom manifest thru imperfect people who are willing to trust and abide in Him. I rely on His Spirit to discern the evil and the good as it becomes manifest in the counseling process. And it seems to me that we are always only partially willing to hear, understand and repent. I see in myself and others that spiritual growth is usually very slow. I am thankful that God is patient with us. And I think it’s important that we be patient with ourselves, while being careful not to be lazy or indifferent. We must receive God’s Grace and mercy—we desperately need it. But we must be careful not to presume upon it. In the Christian life, diligence and peace are perfectly married together. We are slow; but we never stop. We never give up. And there is wisdom in that fairy tale in which the persistent turtle won the race with the inconsistent rabbit.
There are some principles of our faith that repeatedly emerge in my mind in the counseling process. I have alluded to the most significant one: The Love of Christ in our hearts going out to all people. Even our enemies, those who curse, hate, or despitefully use us [Mt5:44]. This is the supreme teaching of Christ, from my humble perspective. It is tremendously liberating. This teaching makes it clear that Jesus does not want us to be determined by the sinful natures of those with whom we relate. This is a very difficult principle to live. It is difficult because we tend to resonate with those around us. For example, if my wife, Lynn, treats me disrespectfully, it is very difficult for me to respond in the Spirit. Her sinful nature [or what I perceive to be her sinful nature] tends to evoke my sinful nature. If she’s in a bad mood, it’s hard for me to be in a good one. I tend to be determined inwardly by her sinful nature manifestations, and she by mine. Her sinful nature evokes a sinful nature response from me. Jesus says I must overcome this tendency. God must be my God; not the current mood or any character weakness of anyone around me. There is a very powerful tendency for us to be determined by each other. But whatever determines me is my god! And if I am allowing myself to be determined by the sinful nature manifestation of any human, then I am violating God’s first commandment—to have no other god before Him. The Bible teaches us to not return evil for evil, and to not be overcome by evil, but to overcome evil with GOOD. This is counter-intuitive. Our natural tendency is to hit back when we are hit; return hatred for hatred; contempt for contempt; cold shoulder for cold shoulder. But as long as we continue in that way, we continue to be the victims of the sinful natures of those around us. Satan is the puppeteer, we are the puppets, and the evil behaviors of those around us are the strings. Only when we can return goodness for evil are we really free. And Jesus wants us free; just as surely as God wanted Israel free from the bondage of Pharaoh.
Another marvelous principle from the teachings of our Lord is the [also already alluded to] Beam and Speck Principle. This combined with the story of the woman caught in adultery, about to be stoned, teach us that God wants us to be introspective and non-defensive. In order to "get the beam out of my own eye" I have to look within my eye—to look within myself and be willing to see the evil that needs to be removed. In order for any of the hate-filled men with stones to know whether he had no sin [so that he could cast the first stone] he had to be willing to look within himself, and to admit the truth about himself [which all apparently did, none finding that he was entitled to cast a stone]. The truth does not need to be defended; it only needs to be acknowledged and courageously lived. Jesus did not defend Himself because He was Truth incarnate. We who abide in Him also have nothing to defend about ourselves. We are sinners! We are only free when we can acknowledge that fact, and do the best we can to repent and receive forgiveness in Christ. We are still in bondage when we are defensive. We defend ourselves in fear: fear of being misjudged, or fear of being found out. The first fear is useless, and the second is evil. God does not expect His children to be perfect; but He does expect us to be honest, sincere, and responsible. He is angered by denial and defensiveness. Those are the ways of the Pharisees.
A final wonderful truth that Jesus has so graciously bestowed upon us is:
"In the world you will have tribulation. Nevertheless, be of good cheer. I have overcome the world." [Jn16:33]. Christians should never be shocked or dismayed when tribulation comes. Jesus has assured us that it will. Life never gets easy. Satan never stops. Accidents happen. Sickness comes to each of us and all our loved ones. Things don’t happen the way we planned. People don’t do what they are supposed to. Life savings are lost. Homes are destroyed by natural disasters. Drunk drivers kill innocent children. Doctors make mistakes and people die unnecessarily. Eventually, we all die a quick or lingering death. Our hope and faith must never be founded upon this world, which is passing away. There will never be solid security in this world. Jesus wants us to know this, and accept it.
But the God Who has given us life and caused us to value it so tremendously; and Who knows that we can look ahead and see its earthly end, has also given us victory over fear when He raised Jesus from the dead, confirming to all believers that [as Jesus said to the Sadducees] God is not the God of the dead, but the living. The world that Jesus has overcome includes all the tribulations of life, and death itself, which is our final victory.
Our only security is Christ Himself, Who stated that He is in us, and we in Him, and He in the Father. We abide eternally in He Who has overcome the world of all tribulation and death. He does not deliver us from tribulation; He delivers us through it.
So, if your grandchildren ask you "What is counseling?" You might answer, "Well, when it’s done right, it’s a way to help people be more of what God created them to be: joyful, loving and free, servants of God and man."
I want to end with a word of encouragement. One of the personologists says that we are in the stage of life characterized by GENERATIVITY vs. STAGNATION. And INTEGRITY vs. DESPAIR.. It’s a time to face our failures squarely, without morbid guilt or remorse; but in the sure grace of God’s forgiveness in Christ. It’s a time to help our children, grandchildren, and the upcoming generation in their maturity, without becoming judgmental of them for their lack of wisdom; being patient and graceful toward them; speaking the truth they need to hear, and speaking it in LOVE. It is a time when we can set our own pace, somewhat, and choose to use our best gifts in well-focused service. It is a time when we mellow and ripen in all the gifts of the spirit. [And fruit is always sweetest, and tastes best at its most ripened stage.]
It is a time of integration: a time of allowing the cream of may years of life experience to rise to the top, to be scraped off and used by the next generation. It is a time to think deeply and clearly about how to be as bright a light as possible for those coming behind us. It is a time of acceptance: of the inevitable loss of certain physical abilities and mental acuity; of the imperfections of the world that will not be ended before our life is ended; of death itself. But this acceptance does not mean loss of hope or spiritual vitality, either for ourselves or for the coming generation. No matter how dark things may seem, we have been promised victory, and a hope that will not be cut off. We must not despair for the coming generation. Rather we must prepare them by pointing them, as clearly and directly as we can, at Christ. Our lives should become, now more than ever, a giant finger pointing at Christ. This stage of our lives, freed from many of the responsibilities of those earlier stages, may indeed offer us the greatest opportunity to be the best that we have been for the kingdom of God. By His grace, may it be so.