Jan 05 2021 29 mins 5
FamilyLife Today® Radio Transcript
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Life in Spite of Me
Day 1 of 3
Guest: Kristen Jane Anderson
From the Series: On the Edge of Hopelessness
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Bob: Kristen Jane Anderson was 17 years old and was ready for life…to be over. When she heard a ‘Freight Train’ approaching at the park where she was sitting; she decided to lay her body across the tracts.
Kristen: When the train stopped I wasn’t sure if I was alive or dead. I remember just opening my eyes and unclenching my fists and starting to look around because I didn’t know what to think. I didn’t know what it was like to die! Obviously I just had no idea what to think.
When I was looking around, I looked behind me; to my right…and I saw my legs about 10 feet behind me on my right.
Bob: This is FamilyLife Today for Wednesday, September 8th. Our host is the President of FamilyLife and I am Bob Lepine. Kristen Jane Anderson joins with us today to share a remarkable story of survival and of faith.
And welcome to FamiyLife Today! Thanks for joining us on the Wednesday edition. We are going to hear a remarkable story today. A story of where there is hope! Actually to start things off, I want to read a Bible verse. This is one of my favorite Bible verses.
Dennis: I would feel better if you had a real Bible opened; I mean, instead of reading it off your iphone.
Bob: I love carrying this around.
Dennis: You do! You really do! You get a grin on your face when you scroll down to the passage
Bob: It is a little awkward when I am up front in my church reading from my iphone, but it is….
Dennis: You do it there too?
Bob: Yeah! This is the way I read my Bible now. And I love it!
Dennis: Okay!
Bob: 1 Peter 2:9 says, “You are a chosen race a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession …. ‘(And this is the part that I love)’ …….that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
I think the story we are going to hear about this week is one of those out of darkness into marvelous light stories.
Dennis: I think you are right, Bob, and I think that our listeners; regardless if they are dealing with something troubling or challenging in their lives right now or rather if things are going well, they need to hear this story. It is the story of a young lady who joins us on FamilyLife Today, Kristen Jane Anderson, joins us today on FamilyLife Today. Kristen, welcome to the broadcast!
Kristen: Thank you for having me on.
Dennis: Kristen is a graduate of Moody, almost; right?
Kristen: Right!
Dennis: Almost a graduate of Moody Bible Institute! She is a popular speaker to college students and women’s events all around the country. She has been featured on Oprah, which we had some fun talking about before we came on the air here.
Bob: She was comparing you and Oprah …wasn’t she?
Dennis: She was! She was! She was…. And you actually asked her, “which was a bigger treat, to be on our broadcast …… or her (Oprah) TV program?
Bob: And let’s move on shall we?
Dennis: She has written a book called, Life In Spite of Me. I am just going to cut right to the chase here. Kristen, I am going to ask you to take us to January 2. You were in a park and it was dark and it was icy cold there and it was the most dramatic day of your life.
Kristen: Yes! I was at the park and I was there because I didn’t feel like I could go home. I didn’t want to go home. I didn’t want to get in trouble and I thought I was going to disappoint my parents again. I was at the park just kind of trying to waste time and to figure out what I was going to do next and I was swinging on the swings and as I was there I started to think about why I was there.
Why did I feel like I couldn’t go home? Why did I feel the way that I did inside? I was struggling and then I remembered that in the park that I was in that you were supposed to be out of the park after the sun goes down. I knew that the police come and patrol the park and if you’re in the park after dark they make you leave.
The reason I was there is that I didn’t want to go home, so I looked around to see where else I could go and I saw that there had been a set of train cars parked on the edge of the park. I knew that they had been there for about 3 weeks. I walked over to the train cars and I sat on one of them. Then I started to think about a thought process that I had had about 3 months beforehand. It was after one of my friends had taken his life. He had taken his life by hanging himself in the cemetery.
Dennis: You were 17 years of age?
Kristen: Right! I had no idea how to handle it and I didn’t understand it. I remember thinking, “I don’t know how he could ever do that. How could he ever take his life?” And then I thought, “I don’t know how he could do it the way that he did it, especially that way.”
But then my thought process changed and I started to think, “Well if I was ever going to do it, how would I do it?” I went through a lot of different things in my mind that I had heard about in school or on TV; different ways people try to end their lives and none of them seemed like they would work or be good enough, until I heard the train go by my parent’s house.
I heard the whistle blow and I felt the house just kind of shake. I could feel the power of the train and I thought, “That is one way that I would never live through it.” It just kind of snapped in my mind and I never...
