“Okay, Lord, you can have him. But if he must die, I want it to be for something big.
I want someone’s life to be changed forever.”
This is what Laura Sobiech prayed when she found out her seventeen-year-old son, Zach, had only one year to live. With this desperate prayer, she released her child to God’s will and God answered her prayers in a big way.
One of the things Zach decided to do was write songs as a way to say “goodbye” to his family and friends. And what God did next is indescribable {watch Zach’s video below}
Last week Laura and I talked via SKYPE, and I recorded our conversation to share with you so YOUR life to be as impacted as mine has been. Laura’s faith is rare, her wisdom, grace and her poignant perspective will rearrange your heart with hope and comfort. Her’s is an amazing story of a mother’s honest struggle to trust God with her child’s life and a teenage boy’s determination to live his final days with unending purpose and joy!
In my next post, Laura shares what she prayed and how God moved in big ways – in her heart and soul, in Zach’s life and perspective, in her whole family and in millions of lives across the world!!
God had bigger plans than they could fathom.
In May 2013 a documentary called “My Last Days: Meet Zach Sobiech” was released on the Soul Pancake YouTube channel and went viral – reaching over 12.3 million people within months of its release. During the week of Zach’s death, on May 20, 2013, his song “Clouds” reached #1 on iTunes and made its way up Billboard’s Top 100 chart, debuting at #26, and topping the Rock Digital Downloads at #1.
TARGET Holiday Book Club Pick:
We’re so excited to share the big news that Laura’s memoir, “FLY A LITTLE HIGHER: How God Answered a Mom’s Small Prayer in a Big Way” is the Target Holiday Book Club Pick!!
Just released this week, this exclusive edition created for Target is signed by Laura, and has special bonus materials including an in-depth Q&A with Laura, discussion questions for readers, small groups and families, and really powerful devotionals in the back!
Will you join us in praying this message will reach people who don’t know Jesus; hearts who desperately need His grace and love!!
ENTER TO WIN
Share your thoughts in the comments about Zach and Laura’s story, and why you’d like to win Fly A Little Higher or who you’ll give a copy to this Christmas!!
Our family has been so impacted by this book, and Zach’s story, we’re giving it away as our Christmas gift to friends, extended family, co-workers, the kids’ teachers, and whoever else God puts on our heart.
MORE TO COME
I’ll share more of the amazing story behind Fly A Little Higher tomorrow, and a chance to WIN the book and a beautiful “Clouds” necklace. Plus a huge thing God did that connects our lives in a way we didn’t know about. It all unfolded in a way only God could orchestrate.
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I am encouraged by stories like this and would love to have a copy of this book. Definitely one I would share with many friends.
Renee,
Thank you so much for sharing! Love this and praying for awareness of childhood cancer to grow from this. Love you dearly!
D.
I would love to receive this book because I am going through a loss at this very moment and am seriously trying to trust God with it and praying that someone will be touched in an Awesome way by God. I believe this book will bless me.
This story is something I fear being my story one day. I would love to read a story of hope.
What a beautiful story. I would love to share this with my mother.
I would share this book with my daughter. She is a pediatrician and deals all the time with kids going through hard stuff. Thanks so much for sharing this family’s journey. Was unfamiliar with this story till now.
Oh how beautiful. I would give a copy to my mom this Christmas. We lost my grandmother, her mom, in a house fire on Monday. Because this amazing woman of faith decided to love and follow Jesus, her whole family was changed. She has great-grandkids now who are saved and going to heaven, because she chose to put her family on the path of loving Jesus. I will forever be grateful. I miss Mama Stone so much today.
Renee What a truly amazing story. I am so glad you sharing this with us. What strength and compassion and an inspiration to all. That is one reason I would like to read this book, for the inspiration. I would like to give a copy to my dear friend whose daughter was recently given the news that they found a huge mass in her lung. They don’t know yet what it might be but they are all terrified right now. If you can all include C and her Mom J in your prayers also that would be so welcomed.
Hugs!!!
This story is so touching to me. Just before I found Rene’s blog I was thinking I would really like to read a good, inspiring Christian book. I feel God is leading me to read this book and then share it. My sister Candy left an abusive relationship of 30 years and is struggling on her own. I would like her to read this book of God’s grace and hope.
I would like to share this with my sister.
What a priceless story it is amazing to see how God works in wonderful ways even when we do not agree with his ways all things always wprk together for the good of those who love God
I lost both my parents at a young age i was angry at God. My dad was 30 when he died i was 10 months old didnt understand growing up why my mom asked us to be grateful i wanted a dad
Then for my mom to die on my 18 th birthday was the hardest for me she loved God she prayed everytime she went on a mission trip and got poison how could God take my only parent i wanted to die as i watch her slowly leave this earth i prayed God will do a miracle save her but yet she left this world at 41 still praising God until the end for the people who hurt her
Today at 36 i look back and now i understand that Gods plans are never our plans
I am also with a law enforcement and at first i was scared but after 14 years we pray each day together before he leaves for his shift because all the worries in the world wont help i have learned to trust God no matter how hard i want to scream at him for not getting my way
I am still struggling at christmas time but God planned for me to have my kids and nephews husband around christmas so i wont have time to hurt for my parents loss around that time i am too busy to worry he knew i needed a christmas miracle
I can’t wait to pick up my copy of this book, however, would love to win one as well as a gift for a 10 year old girl that is fighting cancer as well.
If I could win a copy of the book, I would give it to our friend and neighbor who has been given only months to live with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. He is very dear to our church family and we are praying for a miracle.
I have followed Zach’s story since the beginning. I lost my Mom to this dreaded disease right before Zach lost his fight. I would give this book to my cousin who is struggling right now with many issues. Thank you for sharing Zach’s story. I especially loved when you were at the Mall of America last year – what a sight!
I would like to win the book because we are going through the trial of glioblastoma brain cancer in my 51 yr old daughter, who was a much loved and respected kindergarten teacher. At her birth she was dedicated to the Lord and that has been our mindset all through life. She is married and has two grown children and a very attentive husband. When she made the cancer announcement, she said she knew she had the best of both worlds, but the journey is hard. God is good and this world is not our home.
I’d like to win only to pay it forward with this book. Thanks for the inspiration!
I have had the priviledge of being a small part of a handful of children who have won and also lost their lives to this horrible disease. Parents of these children become strong – thier faith stronger – but their hurt very real. I cannot imagine the hole in their heart in the shape of that child. So many of them have gone on to do beautful projects in memory of their to child and to help others that are where they were. There is also a family at our church that lost thier child to Batten’s Disease this year – talk about a faith journey. They have become an inspiration to so many all over the world with their story.
If I were to be honored with this book – I would have a tough choice on who to bless with the other copy of the book as so many come to mind. Thank you for the opportunity.
I would like to win this book because I learn so much from other people’s personal struggles. I appreciate my life so much more!
My husband just recently lost his father to a very aggressive cancer and was given only 1 month to live but passed away after two weeks. We know that he his know dancing with Jesus in heaven and we know that through that process he kept his dad pain free and so peaceful. God is our conformer and our sustainer. he is constant and our Prince of Peace.
I’m learning a new value to prayer now that I am married to a law enforcement officer. Every night when he pulls out of the drive way my prayers begin to go up and I pray until I am too exhausted to stay awake. I know that God will protect us no matter what – but I also know that His protection might not look as I expect. I am learning that prayer is the only thing that will sustain me through the nights that my husband is at work because it is my direct connection with our creator and protector. I can only imagine what this mother went through during this journey – a journey no one would want to walk. Yet her simple and trusting prayer inspires me to pray differently when my husband pulls out of the drive each night. I want to release him into the Lord Jesus’ hands, I want to have that much faith that no matter what God will use my husbands life for something big. I crave that peace that can come with that…and hopefully one day I will learn what that feels like.