The captivating story of an American man who had a brush with three separate terror attacks — and miraculously survived two of them — captured international headlines back in March 2016.
READ: This Handy Video Perfectly Explains How the Bible Came to Be
And now, a year and a half later, Mason Wells, 21, is breaking his silence with the new book, “Left Standing: The Miraculous Story of How Mason Wells’s Faith Survived the Boston, Paris, and Brussels Terror Attacks,” as he recounts his experiences and offers forgiveness.
His dad, Chad Wells, appeared this week in a Facebook Live with Faithwire to discuss his son’s miraculous survival as well as his own personal experience surviving the Boston bombing alongside Mason before, just three years later, watching his son’s grueling recovery from the Brussels airport bombing.
Among the most powerful elements of the interview were Wells’ statements about the power and importance of forgiveness. After all, he was forced to watch Mason overcome horrific injuries as a result of the Brussels bombing — injuries that left Wells asking questions about why anyone would want to “perpetrate such evil.”
Still, despite the horror, he has chosen forgiveness.
“How we react to situations really determines how we come out of those situations,” he said. “You let go inside of yourself with all the hatred and anger … it’s a terribly painful process … however, once you can come through it, it feels tremendous on the other side.”
Watch what Wells had to say about the power of forgiveness below:
He survived the Boston bombing and his son miraculously survived TWO separate terror attacks.But despite the horror, here's why they chose forgiveness (check out the story in the book "Left Standing" here: http://a.co/gFUeahb).
Posted by Faithwire on Tuesday, November 14, 2017
Wells also spoke about the survivors of recent terror attacks and shootings, offering up his advice to them in light of what some of those victims might be thinking and feeling.
“The emotions you’re feeling — the anger, the frustration, the hatred, the overwhelming feelings, they’re normal feelings that we go through in life through these experiences,” he said, encouraging people not to feel bad about experiencing those emotions. “In the end, you need to turn it back toward a positive … if you stay focused on the dark things in life … it will overwhelm you.”
Find out more about “Left Standing,” a book I helped co-author, here.