Coleman Sweeney Rest in Pieces (Courtesy Healthcare Success)

He is indeed the world’s biggest a@#hole and his name is (or was), Coleman Sweeney. Okay, this is all fiction, but we’ve all known a Coleman Sweeney or two throughout our lives. In fact, I knew a guy named Ted who could have played the part of Coleman quite naturally. Ironically, he too died early on.

But the point of this isn’t to talk about a@#holes, it’s to talk about redemption. This new video about Coleman (or it’s new to me anyway) is getting a lot of play on social media precisely because it’s so brilliantly written and executed. It combines raw, unabashed, redneck humor with the very serious if not controversial topic of organ donation.

In the video, Coleman Sweeney walks around his small town going out of his way to make everyone around him uncomfortable and miserable. Like the video narrator says, he feels the world owes him something, and therefore he takes delight in breaking the rules of a normal, decent, law abiding society. He’s even an a@#hole to kids.

(courtesy YouTube)

But then something happens one day. Coleman drops dead of an aneurysm while trying to cheat a waitress out of an order of extra fries along with a $1.99 early bird breakfast. While he lay on the floor dead as a door nail, the waitress goes through his wallet and discovers not only Coleman’s name and address, but something much more special. His redemption.

Turns out Coleman Sweeney, the world’s biggest a@#hole, had a heart after all. In fact, in death he gives that very same Grinch heart away and in the process, saves the life of a school teacher who would have died without a transplant. His liver goes to a man named Stan who is the father of two. And his tendons go to a Wounded Warrior so that he can walk again. A gift of majestic proportions to be sure.

Life is a funny thing. Just when you thought you had someone figured out, they turn out to be something completely different. In life, Coleman Sweeney was an a@#hole. But in death, he became a life saver, and most of all, a giver of hope. He was redeemed.

“Up yours, Coleman Sweeney. And nice job!”