“Breakthrough” Emphasizes the Power of Prayer
I still remember the first story I covered as a professional journalist. It was the summer of 2013; I had just graduated from college and taken a job in south Texas as a breaking news reporter.
The night before my early morning shift, a young man from our community had crashed his motorcycle into the back of his friends 2008 Suzuki all-terrain vehicle. He wasn’t wearing a helmet and landed head first into a ditch.
I followed this story for an entire year(Click here to read the one-year-later story). In those early days, I wrote about how the ambulance drivers told his mother he wouldn’t likely survive the drive to the hospital, how the doctors said he wouldn’t survive the first 72 hours, and how he wasn’t expected to wake from a coma.
In each article, I included a request from the family: Please pray.
And the community did.
It was powerful.
The other day I got to see an advanced screening of the movie “Breakthrough,” now open. The storyline immediately reminded me of the story I just told you. It reminded me of the power of faith.
Starring Chrissy Metz (This is Us), the film tells the real-life story of a 14-year-old boy who fell through the ice and was stuck in freezing water until rescue workers arrived, some 15 minutes later. He was lifeless when he arrived at the hospital: no pulse, a temperature of 88 degrees, and after 45 minutes of resuscitation, he’s considered clinically dead.
Left to say goodbye to her son, his mother (played by Metz) cries out to God – one of the most heartbreaking minutes of my life and those around me, based on our sobs. His heart begins to beat again.
I don’t want to give away too much of the story (you have to see it if you want to know more), but what I will say is that I found the movie to be incredibly uplifting. I loved the message of a mother’s unfaltering love, and I loved the message of community support and the power of prayer.
How often are we reminded of those things?
I personally think we should be reminded of that every day.
Not every outcome ends with perfection. The guy I told you about in the beginning suffered a traumatic brain injury, cannot talk and is bound to a wheelchair. But he survived. He lived.
I learned so much about faith and the power of prayer and the importance of community support writing that story – and the hundreds of breaking news stories that followed. It really made all the difference in someone’s worst day.
