If you listened to Season 3 of TAB Media’s Stories podcast, you heard a little bit of Justin Dobbs’ story.
In episode 3, Jeremy Beck shares about how God brought beauty from the ashes of his grief journey in the past 11 years, including the painful season brought on by the death of his father in late 2020.
The initial painful season came with the death of Justin, a 16-year-old student who was a leader in Beck’s youth group when he died unexpectedly in 2011.
“It was a wake-up call of how fragile life is,” Beck said.
He says Justin was a talented kid — he could play pretty much any instrument he picked up. But more importantly, he was passionate about reaching the lost for Christ. The day he died, he was getting ready to lead a Bible study at his house that night.
Wake-up call
But his death was a wake-up call not just for Beck but also for the youth group. They started sharing their faith, and for the next year, Valley Creek Baptist Church in Hueytown baptized at least one teenager every week.
“It was a revival that broke out into our church,” said Beck, who now serves as pastor of Grant Street Baptist Church in Bessemer.
In the newly released Season 4, Episode 3, we’ll talk with Beck again, along with Justin’s parents, John and Kim Dobbs, and hear more of what it’s been like for them to grapple with losing their son, and struggle with the question of how he died and whether or not he took his own life.
You’ll hear them share in their own words what it’s like to cling to God through suffering and see God work in a way they say they wouldn’t go back and change even if they could.
Listen at tabonline.org/stories or wherever you get your podcasts.
