Brad's Legacy: A Son's Heart Discovered

It's funny to me.... It's the "difficult" situations from my teaching career that stand out the most in my memory.... someone's personally designed rocket being thrown out the second story window by another student... lecturing a class that had been naughty for the sub... making a student carry his belongings around in a box because he couldn't keep his desk neat enough that the items weren't spewing out of it...

As it is with Brad, my strongest memory of him was the time I was trying to teach verbals.  I am pretty sure it was gerunds which were causing the big confusion, and I remember keeping Brad and Nathanael long into their next class because they REFUSED to leave until they understood gerunds completely.  There was NO way either of those boys was going to take a chance on a  lower grade just because they didn't understand the homework.  That's how I remember Brad Larson as my student.

I learned MUCH more about Brad through reading the book his parents wrote after his death then I ever knew from being his teacher for four years.  As I read his book, I cried many tears:  tears for the parents who lost their precious child, tears for the brother and sister who lost their amazing sibling, tears for the life Brad never got to finish living....  But I couldn't cry long, for I kept on imaging Brad in Heaven.  In my mind, Brad doesn't let Jesus have a second alone.... Ever inquisitive, ever thirsting for knowledge, I imagine Brad up in Heaven just PEPPERING our Savior with questions...  It makes me chuckle through my tears to imagine this.

I learned a lot from Brad's book, and today, on his birthday, when he would have been 27 years old, I am going to honor his memory by telling you what I learned from his life:

1.  There is NO goal too lofty.  Set your standards HIGH and then shoot for them.  I was STRUCK hard by the "Club 31:1" Brad started.  It was a group of boys trying to live after Job's example:  "I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl."  Job 31:1... In this world of sin and shamefulness, where everywhere you turn a young man's eyes are assaulted by images which would draw the purest to lust... the mere fact that a group of young men would AIM for such a lofty goal inspired me.  There are so many things in my life which I feel I just don't even have the courage to aim for right now:  losing weight, buying this house, getting caught up on the laundry.... (and many, many more much too personal to print)... I was inspired by the loftiness of this goal and the courage of a young man (many young men actually) to aim for it.

2.  There is no such thing as a lame testimony.  Like Brad was, I too have, "been a Christian all my life."  I completely related to the feelings expressed in "His Testimony" that somehow getting saved at a young age before you'd had time to have some evil, awful sins to be saved from was boring...  that somehow confessing coveting your sister's crayons was just NOWHERE near as riveting as confessing a drug-addiction.  But while reading Brad's testimony I was struck by the pure and simple BEAUTY of a life that always honored God...

3.  There is no guaranty about tomorrow so LIVE TODAY.  The final thing I learned from reading Brad's book was just to live life FULLY.  This lesson struck me because Brad Larson did not have NEARLY enough years on this earth, and Jami Kastner has NO idea when her days on this earth will come to an end.  Therefore, the only conclusion is to LIVE LIFE FULLY!  Appreciate those around you.... laugh HARD at stuff... don't take this thing called life too seriously... and just LIVE while you have the chance.

It's really a great book that Dr. and Mrs. Larson put together from Brad's writings.  I tried to find it online to link to it so if anyone wanted to purchase it they could, alas I was unable to find a place to purchase it.  If you really want a copy, let me know and I will ask the Larsons how to order copies.  And if you could please, take a second right now to say a quick prayer for the Larsons:  David, Sherry, Jeff, Becky, and Dawn... For I know today is a very hard day for them.

Finally, a quick note:

Brad,

Thank you for leaving behind your writings so I could see into your precious heart, and thank you for living a life of such inspiration.... Say, "Hi" to Jesus for me.

Love,
Miss Haugh