Suffering is often God’s special way of speaking to us. This was Deacon Gene Neral’s experience. As he recovered from a head-on car accident, prolonged neck injury, and four subsequent instances of the same brain tumor, Jesus gave him a phrase that would become his motto for life: “focus on the moment and trust in God’s love.”
Deacon Gene’s story is a testament to the miraculous grace of God through pain and difficulty. His story, which he shares in a little book he wrote, has become a means of ministry and encouragement to others, reminding them to place their lives "in focus" around this simple truth.
Focus on the Moment
Living in the present moment is no easy task. When his life as a husband, father, and advertising professional took a turn as he recovered from being in a collision, Deacon Gene had a chance to reassess his approach to life and how he usually heard others speak of theirs.
“I soon realized that people were telling me all about what happened in the past and what they would like to experience in the future,” Deacon Gene shares in his book, “but few, if any, seemed to be ready to talk about what was happening in their life NOW. It became apparent that people really needed to learn to ‘focus on the moment.’”
Focusing on the moment requires slowing down enough to see God’s hand in things. Deacon Gene is convinced that his accident was not actually an accident: he says it was God’s providence. The whiplash that caused his stiff neck drew attention to a tumor near his optic nerve that doctors had long ago dismissed as simply scar tissue on his eye. If the tumor had been found and operated on twenty years earlier, the primitive technology would likely have left him blind.
God had the best plan for Deacon Gene to continue living, loving, and serving him as a family man––with nearly sixty years of marriage to Barbara, three sons, and several grandchildren––and serving the Church, too, as a permanent deacon. He was ordained in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown’s first diaconate class in 1985.
Trust in God’s Love
With the same brain tumor present a third time and another surgery on the horizon for Deacon Gene, a coworker asked him: “How can you ‘focus on the moment’ when someone is going to cut your head open in another month?”
He replied: “You just have to trust in God’s love.”
Immediately, Deacon Gene realized that this was an essential followup to the part about focusing on the moment. A friend printed the phrase onto little cards, and when his wife Barbara brought them to the hospital, Deacon Gene began sharing the little cards everywhere: with the nurses on their carts, with fellow patients, with friends and parishioners.
“Focus on the moment and trust in God’s love.” As the title of his book highlights, it’s a motto for us to believe forwards but live in reverse. He explains:
“It is only after I am willing to TRUST God with everything I am and everything I have that I can focus on the moment, do my best, and trust that God will do the rest.”
Although he had discovered this message of trust in God for his own life, Deacon Gene later learned from his spiritual director that it echoed a known spiritual tradition, Fr. Jean-Pierre de Caussade’s writings in the early eighteenth century on Abandonment to Divine Providence. When he heard Deacon Gene’s story, Fr. Benedict Groeschel C.F.R. confirmed this beautiful correlation. calling it “true abandonment.”
(Pictured: Deacon and his wife Barbara)
Divine Providence in the Details
Deacon Gene’s story testifies that God’s Providence shows up in the details. In elementary school, he was educated by the Sisters of Divine Providence––and years later, the Lord would offer Him this theme of trust in God’s provision.
Devotion to Our Lady has been another beautiful thread in his life, as Deacon Gene faithfully wore the Miraculous Medal since his First Holy Communion and discerned the priesthood with the Society of Mary (Marianists) before meeting his wife. In his book, Deacon Gene highlights Our Lady as a valuable model of complete focus on God:
“The best example of someone who lived each moment to the fullest was the Blessed Virgin Mary … Her immediate response to the message of Gabriel changed the world. Her willingness to say yes at that moment made it possible for the Holy Spirit to conceive the Son of God in her womb,” he writes.
Deacon’s own yes to God involves ministering to others through his book. He shares copies with as many people as he can for a donation of whatever they can give in return. The smallest donation he ever received was fifty cents, two quarters taped inside a thank you card, yet it was the one that touched his heart most.
You can find Deacon Gene Neral’s book sharing his impactful story in print on Amazon or as an audiobook through Spotify or Audible. Find out more about him by visiting lifeinfocus.net.
(All photos courtesy of Deacon Gene Neral.)
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