How God Delivered This Pastor From Despair After His Wife’s Death in the Emanuel AME Shooting
Yesterday, Charisma News shared the story of how a seemingly casual conversation with his wife may have saved Rev. Anthony Thompson from death at the hands of white supremacist Dylann Roof in the Emanuel AME Church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina.
But that wasn’t the only miracle God did in Thompson’s life that day, he tells host Dr. Steve Greene on a popular episode of the Greenelines podcast. In the darkest phase of his grief, God intervened in a supernatural way.
After rushing to the church when the news of the shooting came and then learning of the death of his beloved wife, Myra, “I just lost it,” Thompson says. “For the first time in my life, I lost control. I fell on the ground, the pavement on Calhoun Street, and I just cried uncontrollably like a baby. … all I can remember saying is, ‘I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I have no more purpose.’
“And while I’m wallowing down and crying, I’m just thinking; I can see everything just passing,” Thompson continues. “I’m saying, ‘I’m going to quit the church; I’m leaving the church; I’m not going to be a pastor anymore. I’m not going to be mentoring kids anymore’ … my life was over.
“I wasn’t thinking about taking my life, but I was like, ‘What am I doing this for?'” Thompson says. “Because all the stuff I ever did, I did for her. And so I just at that time found no purpose.”
But out of nowhere, a harsh-sounding voice broke through his swirling thoughts.
“All of a sudden, I heard somebody say, ‘Get up,'” Thompson says. “And I looked, and nobody was looking at me. It said it again, ‘Get up.'”
Thompson says he was searching for the source of the voice when he heard it again: “Get up.”
At this point, he says, he realized the “voice” was none other than God, who had a special message for him. But that message didn’t come with the words Thompson wanted to hear.
Listen to the rest of this episode of the Greenelines podcast to find out what the Lord told him and how it set the pace for Anthony Thompson’s healing journey, one that led him to not only forgive Dylann Roof but to continue his ministry and write the book Called to Forgive. And be sure to subscribe to the Greenelines podcast for more inspiring stories of God’s intervention in our lives. {eoa}
