(Video above: Rick & Sherri Burgess appear on Fox & Friends)
Eight years to the day after Rick and Sherri Burgess lost their two-year-old son Bronner in a tragic swimming pool accident, Sherri will release Bronner: A Journey to Understand, a book that discusses what she has learned through the grieving process.
The couple appeared on Fox & Friends Sunday morning to discuss the book.
“When God took our son, I wanted to understand. I needed some answers so I cried out to God and he gave them,” said Sherri. “To God this was refinement. No one teaches like the Lord — no one. He took away our son in order to take the love of the world out of us. And in doing so, He made us free to live the life He created for us in the first place: one that hungers for more than that this world can offer.”
Fox & Friends commentator Tucker Carlson asked Rick Burgess, co-host of the Alabama-based, nationally syndicated Rick & Bubba Show, how his relationship with Sherri withstood such a difficult time, when tragic events often result in the breakdown of marriages.
Burgess called that idea a “myth,” saying he has found that “marriages that were weak and had problems before (a tragedy), move away from each other. But you find that if the marriage was already strong, then it just becomes stronger. And that’s, Praise the Lord, been our story.”
The Fox & Friends panel asked Sherri if she ever doubted God throughout the process.
“I didn’t,” she quickly replied. “I really felt like this was His will. I felt like God created Bronner for this purpose; that He kept confirming over and over to us that Bronner’s life was complete and perfect at two-and-a-half years; that God was going to use Bronner to bring other people to Himself. You know, I told you that I cried to God for answers. I will tell you. one day I asked God, ‘Why the children?’ I said to God, ‘I know you lost your Son, but you got him back after 3 days’. And I heard God say to me ‘But what about the others? They’re all mine. You’re going to get this glorious reunion with your son, but I won’t get that with all of mine.’ And so I knew that God was using this to bring some of his lost sheep home to himself and if that is Bronner’s purpose and our purpose in losing a child then it’s worth it to us.”
In one particularly powerful portion of the interview, Rick recalled the moment he realized it was time for him to “get back on the horse” and return to his popular radio show.
“I remember sitting there in this little farm house that God gave us,” he said. “We didn’t even know why He was giving it to us until we realized that we needed refuge. It’s a tiny little house, not anything in it, just us. I’m sitting there waiting to go back to work, and I’ll never forget this moment — I think this is what people can take away from it. Why (does) God allow these things to happen? You have to believe that because, if you don’t believe He allowed it, then you don’t believe He can stop it. So if he’s sovereign, then he allowed it, but why?
“I was looking down and I couldn’t tie my shoes to go back to work,” he continued. “Can you imagine going back on the air after something like this and now you go, ‘Do I say the next funny thing? When do I talk about politics again?’ When none of that seems to matter to you anymore. And I remember saying ‘Lord, you expect me to do this and I can’t even tie my shoes.’ And I heard from the Lord, ‘Now you’re ready. Your problem Rick isn’t that you weren’t strong enough[…],’ because I was raised by a football coach to be strong and stand up, stand in the doorway, ‘Your problem is that you’ve never been weak enough. There’s too much you and now you’re so broken down you need God Almighty to tie your shoes. Now you’re ready to be used in way like I could never use you before.’”
The full Fox & Friends interview can be viewed above. Bronner: A Journey to Understand is currently available on Amazon and will be in retailers nationwide next week.
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