This note is loosely based on the career of Sal Fasano and the Jeff Pearlman article linked below. http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspiring-people-and-stories/baseball-player-contemplates-steriod-use/article89787-1.html He doesn’t know what to think anymore or how to act or what he’ll do in a few years. He scatters seed, but doesn’t see much fruit. You see, when you […]
There have been many times where I’ve felt misled, deceived and betrayed by God. I get tired of hearing people say “God is never late” or “God will never let you down”. I think a better expression is, “God knows what He’s doing” – even if we don’t know what we’re […]
Because we are important to God, I think God cares about what is important to us. I also think it is a good thing to look back at where we’ve come from and what God has brought us through. Even though memories can bring up sadness for things and people […]
Growing up as a Boston sports fan in the 80’s and 90’s wasn’t exactly easy. There was the whole Bill Buckner thing. Clemens could never seem to win the big game. My favorite player on my favorite team in my favorite sport suddenly collapsed dead in a gym one day […]
I was sitting closest to the aisle and it was the first Sunday of the month, so it was time for communion. The elder passed me the bread and looked straight into my eyes and said, “The body of Christ, broken for you”. People tend to focus on how large […]
For the most part, life is pretty boring and uneventful. I don’t even realize I’m getting older until I see a picture from a few years ago. It seems like change is a lot quieter than I thought it would be. There is no band that plays in the background […]
My first awareness of change within me came as I began to reflect on how I performed the mundane responsibilities from which I felt so alienated. Though I was not completely alive to them, I was able at least to think about them, if only from a distance. I was struck by how wonderfully ordinary life is. Simply being alive became holy to me. As I saw myself typing exams, chatting with a student on the way to class, or tucking one of my children into bed, I sensed I was beholding something sacred. My encounters with students presented astonishing opportunities to listen and encourage. Bedtime with Catherine, David, and John allowed me to convey the blessing and love of God to them. I was not yet fully alive to these ordinary moments, but I began to glimpse how profound they were.
In other words, though I experienced death, I also experienced life in ways that I never thought possible before – not after the darkness, as we might suppose, but in the darkness. I did not go through pain and come out the other side; instead, I lived in it and found within that pain the grace to survive and eventually grow. I did not get over the loss of my loved ones; rather, I absorbed the loss into my life, like soil receives decaying matter, until it became a part of who I am. Sorrow took up permanent residence in my soul and enlarged it. I learned gradually that the deeper we plunge into suffering, the deeper we can enter a new, and different, life – a life no worse than before and sometimes better. A willingness to face the loss and to enter into the darkness is the first step we must take. Like all first steps, it is probably the most difficult and takes the most time.
– Gerald L. Sittser, loser of his mother, wife and daughter in a car accident with a drunken driven. Taken from his book: A Grace Disguised: How the Soul Grows Through Loss.
