Shout out to Miker

Agnes McAllister · Aug 14, 2026 at 6:13 PM

miker said: ↑

I continue to pray for you all and remember you today on 2nd anniversary of our crash.

Some thoughts i had earlier in morning..

Two years ago today, on August 14, 2024, our lives changed forever.

Alyce and I were struck head-on by a drunk driver. My sister-in-law Maryellen died that night. Alyce and I suffered devastating injuries, and for a time our children did not know whether either of us would survive.

Two years later, I am still overwhelmed by the fact that we are here.

I remain grateful for the police officers and EMS crews who refused to give up on us, the doctors and nurses who fought to save our lives, the priests who prayed over us, the therapists who helped us learn to live again, and the countless people who carried our family when we could not carry ourselves.

I remain in awe of Alyce and the courage she continues to show in her own healing. I am also deeply grateful for our children, who have loved us, supported us, and carried burdens no children should ever have had to carry. They, too, are still healing.

Last year, much of my reflection was about survival, gratitude, forgiveness, and the miracle of being alive. All of that remains true. But this past year, God has been showing me that surviving was not the end of the story.

In many ways, it was only the beginning.

For a time, I think I began to make the accident part of my identity. I became Mike, the man who survived the impossible crash. That will always be part of my story. My body carries the evidence of it, and my heart always will.

But it is not who I am.

My deepest identity is much simpler: I am a beloved son of God. I was His before the accident, in the wreckage, in the ICU, and when I took my first steps again. I am His today—in the healing that has come and in the wounds that remain.

This year, God has also begun showing me that not all my wounds began on August 14, 2024. Some were present long before: my need to be in control, my drive to get everything right, my fear of disappointing others, my pride, and my tendency to measure my worth by what I accomplish or provide.

Perhaps the accident did not create those wounds. Perhaps it stripped away enough of my defenses for me finally to begin seeing them.

I am learning that Jesus does not want only the inspiring parts of my story—the survival, determination, gratitude, faith, and forgiveness. He also wants the parts I would rather hide: my fear, sadness, pride, sins, and need for control.

He does not ask me to fix those things before coming to Him. He asks me to bring them to Him and allow Him to enter them.

That is not easy for someone who has spent much of his life trying to stay in control, solve problems, care for everyone else, and prove his worth through what he could accomplish and provide. Even healing can become another project for me—something I think I should be able to understand, manage, and complete.

Perhaps real healing begins when I stop trying to manage it and allow Jesus to meet me where I actually am.

I still believe God spared my life for a reason. But I am less certain that I need to fully understand that reason. Perhaps my purpose is not to accomplish something extraordinary. Perhaps it is to receive the life I have been given, love the people God places before me, and learn to live as His son rather than constantly trying to prove my worth.

I continue to pray for the young woman who caused the crash. Forgiving her remains one of the clearest experiences of grace in my life. But I now understand that mercy is not only something God enabled me to extend to her. It is also something I must be willing to receive for myself.

Our healing is not complete. We still grieve Maryellen and the life our family had before that night. There are physical limitations, sadness, questions, and wounds that remain.

But God remains too.

Two years ago, I believed the great miracle was that I survived. Today, I believe a deeper miracle is still unfolding: I am learning that I do not have to be fully healed, have all the answers, or prove my worth.

I am His son. I am forgiven. And I am loved.
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You are an inspiration Mike! I felt compelled to pray for your sister in law yesterday in my Divine Mercy Chaplet.
Just popped in my head. I will continue praying for you and your family also.

miker · Aug 14, 2026 at 6:52 PM

Agnes McAllister said: ↑

You are an inspiration Mike! I felt compelled to pray for your sister in law yesterday in my Divine Mercy Chaplet.
Just popped in my head. I will continue praying for you and your family also.
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Thank you. Maryellen was an early devotee to Divine Mercy... she taught it to us. She called Alyce everyday at 3pm to pray it.

Agnes McAllister · Aug 14, 2026 at 7:02 PM

miker said: ↑

Thank you. Maryellen was an early devotee to Divine Mercy... she taught it to us. She called Alyce everyday at 3pm to pray it.
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How beautiful! I got goosebumps!

"Quis ut Deus" · Aug 14, 2026 at 7:17 PM

@miker

Sometimes it's just enough to have no words but just a smile of remembrance May Mary Ellen rest in peace

Dont forget to keep a Guinness or two for me when God decides the right time for our meeting

HeavenlyHosts · Aug 14, 2026 at 7:24 PM

"Quis ut Deus" said: ↑

@miker

Sometimes it's just enough to have no words but just a smile of remembrance May Mary Ellen rest in peace

Dont forget to keep a Guinness or two for me when God decides the right time for our meeting
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If you meet Miker for Guinness, you must meet me for the cup of coffee I owe you.

"Quis ut Deus" · Aug 14, 2026 at 7:25 PM

HeavenlyHosts said: ↑

If you meet Miker for Guinness, you must meet me for the cup of coffee I owe you.
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miker · Aug 14, 2026 at 8:00 PM

"Quis ut Deus" said: ↑

@miker

Sometimes it's just enough to have no words but just a smile of remembrance May Mary Ellen rest in peace

Dont forget to keep a Guinness or two for me when God decides the right time for our meeting
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Hopefully soon, John! Sláinte!

padraig · Aug 14, 2026 at 9:05 PM

miker said: ↑

Thank you, Padraig. I have thought and prayed about that question a great deal. Hard to find words... maybe one day we meet over a Guinness or two!

But as i reflect, I hesitate to say that I know why God allowed it, especially because this was not only my cross. Maryellen lost her life, and Alyce, our children, and our entire family have suffered. I cannot claim to understand God’s full plan in all of that.

But I do have some sense of what God has been doing through it. Before accident and much of my adult life, I had placed my security in myself—in being capable, being in control, solving problems, providing for others, and getting things right. I think the accident stripped those false securities away in a flash and showed me how self-reliant I had become. I always believed in God, but He was distant and a bit unapproachable for me. It was because I really thought I could only approach Him after i had it together and was "perfect ". But the accident revealed a God who was very close and loved me as i was - an imperfect sinner. I was lukewarm in my relationship with Him. The accident revealed that to me. I continue to work on that.

I also believe, and I say this with humility, that God allowed Alyce and me to become signs and witnesses of His presence for our children and perhaps for others. We had always tried to share our faith with our children. But through the accident, God gave us the opportunity—imperfectly, and often in our weakness—to actually walk that faith in front of them.

They saw us pray, struggle, forgive, fall, get up again, and continue trying to trust God when none of us understood what He was doing. And I believe I now see in each of them a deeper trust in God, even in the middle of their own trials.

I pray with all my heart that as more difficulties inevitably come into their lives, something of what they witnessed in us will remain with them—not because Alyce and I did everything right, but because they saw that God did not abandon us.

I guess ultimately my answer is i know God loved us through all of it. He never abandoned me. So I cannot fully answer why it happened, and perhaps I never will. But I believe God has used it to call me to deeper conversion—to become less self-reliant, to trust Him more completely, and to understand that my identity and security are found in being his beloved son.

I am still discovering what that means and, honestly, still struggling to live it.
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If it is any comfort, I have found in my own life , with the passing of the years I have discovered that God's plans do become a lot clearer. That the very things that once appeared the worst disasters or failures where indeed ,as St Paul says God turning all things to the good of those who love Him.

HeavenlyHosts · Aug 14, 2026 at 9:56 PM

What the devil intended for evil
God turned to the good.

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Shout out to Miker

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