On the Phoenix cop who woke from a coma swinging, and the courage it took to face what was hiding under the anger.
Years ago, working for our county hospital, I spent real time at the Arizona Burn Center. That is where I met Jason Schechterle, one of the bravest men I have ever known. Not only because he walked through fire, though he did. Because of what he chose to do with what came after.
March 26, 2001. Jason was a young Phoenix police officer on a call when a taxi driver had an epileptic seizure and hit his patrol car from behind at over a hundred miles an hour. The car burst into flames. He survived burns to more than forty percent of his body, nearly fifty surgeries, and a coma of almost three months.
When he woke up, he was not grateful. He was furious. He wanted to blame the driver, the car, God, all of it. And here is the thing about anger. It is not really a first emotion. It is a second one. Anger is the armor we throw on over fear. Under Jason’s rage was terror, grief, the loss of his face, his job, and the future he had planned.
There are really only three directions a person can move. Toward the things we love. Away from the things we fear. Or we freeze and go nowhere at all. Fear drives you away or locks you in place. Jason could barely move for months, so he was stuck in the freeze, alone with the very fear his anger had been hiding.
“Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.”
That is what Jason found in the dark. Not a way around the fear, a way through it. He stopped asking who to blame and started telling the truth: he chose the badge, he chose the route, he took the call. And the moment he faced the fear instead of the anger, it turned into something nobody expects. Gratitude. He was thankful it was him in that car, and not that seizing driver barreling on to the next intersection to hurt a family that never signed up for the risk. Facing the fear moved him from away to toward.
But courage was only the door. What Jason walked through it toward was a Why. He decided the whole ordeal would mean something, that he would come back and use it to strengthen other people, and today he speaks to audiences all over the world. Fifty surgeries is an unthinkable how. A why that big is what made it bearable.
"The bigger the why, the easier the how."
Nate Lowrie
And watch him do it. The man jokes about himself the whole time. Gratitude, faith, and humor forged in the worst thing imaginable. Around here we call that Playful Spirit, and Jason is living proof it is not lightness when life is easy. It is perseverance when life is on fire.
Anger is fear wearing armor. Courage is the guts to lift the visor and look at what you are actually afraid of. Take the heat.
"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear.
(1 John 4:18)
When you feel yourself getting hot: what am I actually afraid of right now?
When someone else comes in hot: what is he afraid of? It keeps you from taking his heat personally, and lets you lead him through it.
How do I find the gratitude, faith, and humor Jason found, to serve my team, my customers, and my community?
Now hear me clearly: anger is not the enemy.
Sometimes anger is exactly what a person needs to rise up out of fear, the fire under someone who finally gets sick and tired of being sick and tired and decides to change.
Anger only turns on you when you never look under it. Used right, it is a signal. It shows you where you are still too small for the problem in front of you, and where you need to grow. Remember what we said earlier in the series: you are only as big as your smallest problem. Let your anger point you to the next size up, in life, family, and business.
Can you take the heat? Jason did, and it set him free.
Let’s get after it in life, family, and business. AND LET’S PLAY TO WIN!!!
Lots of love,
Nate
