No matter our individual religious beliefs, we should all be able to agree that the right way to live our lives is to make the most out of the time we have here in this world: Being a good husband or wife, a good father or mother or son or daughter; living in a healthy manner both physically and spiritually; placing more importance on the needs of others than our own selfish motivations; bringing joy and happiness into the world instead of anger and bitterness.

All those ideals sound nice and provide a rough blueprint for life, and some of us wake up each morning and make an effort to live that day the right way. But what happens when someone is faced with something so catastrophic, something so unfair, that we could hardly blame him if he lost his way?

Siran Stacy could have just given up after a drunk driver plowed into his van on Nov. 19, 2007, killing his wife and four of his five children. Stacy was perhaps closer to being “dead inside,” as he would call it, than most of us would care to think about. Imagine attending the funerals of the people your life revolved around while still unable to fully comprehend the situation because you just woke from a coma. Imagine coming home to an empty house where only pictures remained of the people you loved. Imagine spending your time wondering what your dying family members were saying in the 15 minutes that elapsed from the wreck to when emergency workers were able to begin pulling everyone from the vehicle.

This was the story Stacy, a former University of Alabama and professional football player, relayed to a large, attentive audience at Calera Baptist Church on Sunday. At times, Stacy spoke with a passion and an aggressiveness that would make one think he was fighting his demons right there behind the pulpit. He probably was. It’s probably a battle he wages daily.

Stacy didn’t quit even after suffering a loss and a hurt most of us couldn’t imagine because he knew he could still do good things.

Stacy no doubt touched many lives that day, and when he spoke at Oxford’s Meadowbrook Baptist Church on July 20, 2008, but his point is one that we all should hear on a regular basis. We all feel sorry for ourselves sometimes. It’s our nature. But the only right way to live is to be thankful for what we have and to work toward making the future better than the present.