Life and Hope After an Accidental Death, with Jennifer Eikenhorst

My guest, author Jennifer Eikenhorst knows a depth of sorrow, I pray I never know. She knows the reality of causing someone's accidental death. She's been on a healing journey ever since that fateful day in October of 2014. A journey that has spanned the full gamut of human suffering as she struggled and grappled with trying to make sense of what she used to know and who she used to be tangled with the reality of what she's forced to know in every area of her existence.

She's recently published a book about her journey titled, Left Turn: Life Unimagined. Unimagined indeed. The scope of all that this tragedy seeps into is nothing shy of every facet of her life and the lives of others. Her heart and the hearts of everyone affected have been shattered in countless ways.

Jennifer takes full responsibility for the accidental death of David, a motorcyclist that she did not see after stopping at the stop sign. She has an incredibly humble posture in the position of having taken the life of another human being. Additionally, she has great compassion for those who find themselves in the same exact position as her, having accidentally caused the death of another person.

I'm not quite sure why I find the topic of forgiveness so intriguing but when Jennifer and I were able to get our schedules together for this conversation I knew that she would provide us with an incredible glimpse into the heart of God and His forgiveness. And in her case, not only God's forgiveness but the hope for forgiveness from David's family, her children's forgiveness because they were in the car at the time of the accident, her husband's forgiveness whom she withdrew from him feeling unloveable and unworthy, forgiveness from her community, her church, her job not to mention having to forgive herself and that's just the tip of the iceberg. We ran out of time before we had a chance to talk about the legal process that Texas has in place and the way it added to the devastation.

As we talked, the layers that were affected by David's death, boggled my mind. From the moment of impact the repercussions would be felt in both her life as well as David's life. They didn't know each other prior to that moment in the intersection and despite the fact that David did not survive the tragic accident, Jennifer will never forget him or his family and nor does she want to.

I'm going to keep this intro short. I'm finding it difficult to put into words the beauty and wisdom that Jennifer has to offer because of what God has walked her through. You're going to have to hear it yourself so that you can absorb this life changing information about the heart of God.

As hard as it was for Jennifer to come to grips with what had happened, she knew that this situation had to pass through God's hands and receive approval. So she had to face the fact that God in His sovereignty had allowed it. In an effort to trust Him with His purpose behind allowing it, she asked God to show her how He had prepared her for this moment and she shares the various ways that He confirmed for her that He had prepared her and that He would see her through.

Part of God's redemption for Jennifer was to connect her with Jada Pinkett Smith as a guest on her show, Red Table Talk. The Red Table Talk website describes the show "where we tackle current social and cultural issues with an inter-generational perspective." (redtabletalk.com)

Jennifer's time on the show gave her the opportunity to share the tragedy she was experiencing and how the God of the Holy Bible made all the difference. Jennifer mentions that the Red Table Talk show has approximately 5 million viewers and I do see where they have 11 million followers on Facebook. I can't help but think about how amazing God is in the redemption process.

God has also put Jennifer in the path of people whom she randomly passes and she's able to give an encouraging word for healing as well as provide resources that can help. We talked about so many things and that's why this audio ran over my preferred 1 hour max but you will not be disappointed with the message that Jennifer has to share.

As we closed I asked her the final question, was there any ONE thing she'd want to share with our listeners today. Her response echoed her compassion and empathy that you'll hear throughout the entire conversation. She didn't plead her case, you'll never hear her side step or avoid taking responsibility for the accidental death of David. Instead, she takes the posture of a surrogate of sorts and offers an apology to anyone who needs to hear, "I'm sorry" from someone like her.

This conversation will give your heart courage to trust God especially when life makes no sense and ending it all sounds more appealing.

Let's listen in to find out what beautiful things God spoke to Jennifer in her very dark valley.

Live Loved and Thrive! @alifeofthrive.com 

 

Connect with Jennifer:
You can connect with Jennifer at accidentalhope.com 
Her Podcast: Accidental Hope Podcast 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AccidentalHope
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/accidentalhope/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HopeAccidental

 

Resource: Accidental Impacts under the Hyacinth Fellowship - a support group for those who have unintentionally caused harm to another person: https://hyacinthfellowship.org/

 

Bio:
Jennifer Eikenhorst loves Jesus which she feels is essential in her healing and therefore she shares her beliefs freely. Her faith is the cornerstone of content for her blog and podcast. She’s the wife of a multi-sport coach, Chris (who stole her heart in her senior year of high school), mom to 4 amazing kids, math teacher, blogger, podcast host (Accidental Hope), grad student, hope-seeker, and notorious over-sharer! She’s also an advocate for CADIs (Causing Accidental Death or Injury). Besides Jesus and her family, she loves their golden-doodle Coda, dance fitness, making recipes her own, and Bible journaling.

 

Transcript: https://www.happyscribe.com/transcriptions/227d72c9f31e45efb44c8d4ba5126b08/edit