Love Wins
It has been a while since I last posted anything to this blog, mostly due to the School Daze mentioned in my last posting. I came down with what I can only call a very bad cold that knocked me off my feet and put me in bed for an entire weekend ad a day. That day was this past Monday when I woke up in response to my flashing Moonbeam clock alarm, started my morning in the usual manner (my morning Achiphex pill, multivitamin, and a swig of orange juice followed by a check of email and some time reading from the Bible), but when I got up to ready myself for work, I felt compelled to lie down again and rest for a moment. That moment lasted for quite a while.
I was wakened by a loud banging on my front door. I roused myself from slumber, pulled on a pair of jeans, and stumbled to the door to find my dapperly dressed brother Doug on my doorstep. know that I must have been a sight - three days growth of beard, major bed head hair, perhaps pillow creases on my face, and the bedraggled, groggy expression I gave him as I squinted in the sunlight. He told me that I had everyone worried since I had not answered my phone or sent word that I would not be in to work that day. He said GGCA had called, he had called, my parents had called... I was more than a little chagrined. He had left work to check up on his delinquent big brother. I assured him that I was alive and he left chuckling saying he would inform everyone that I was not dead.
I fell back asleep and awoke sometime later to more knocking and this time found Nathan McFarland on my doorstep with a delivery of homemade chicken soup (made by his wife, Laura) and an apple crisp made by Paula Lange. Again, I wondered what I must have looked like, thanked him for the kind gift, and returned to sleep. When I woke again, I called my parents to assure them their eldest had not succumbed to some virulent virus, and my mother said, "Well, if anything good can be said about this, it's that you know how much people love you." I agreed. I found out the next day that Jen Lynch had begun mentally planning my face to face service. I should have asked her what it would have been like...
Tonight I am at home resting on my couch, still feeling a few linger after effects of whatever virus hit me. I walked the 5k Heart Walk this morning around the Inner Harbor with Rebecca Canino and some friends and though the walk was not tiring, my run-down system told me that even that amount of activity was all it was going to tolerate today. I spent most of the rest of the day laundering clothes and reading an Alexander McCall Smith novel. It has been a good.
Last night was a great night. Our boys won a decisive championship soccer game on a chilly autumn evening, and it was such a wonderful shutout victory, redeeming the loss we had experienced the year before on a rainy October night. It was great being out with the Body of Christ, cheering on our guys. I got to stand alongside Luke Still's mom and dad and listen to them call out their encouragement to all the players during the first half, the one where Jack Hadley scored that amazing goal from far out which sailed over the goalkeeper's head into the net. It was like watching one of those heat-seeking guided missiles zero in on its designated target. BOOM! Goal! I also enjoyed the company of Lisa Schaller and Sue Williams as they cheered on their sons. For a petite lady, Mrs. Schaller can surely whoop and holler pretty big! It was funny to watch Mrs. Williams gasp and look away whenever her son Matt barreled across the field on defense, ending up somersaulting on the turf and bouncing to his feet with a fresh, bloody scrape, but otherwise unhurt. He always looked about to break his neck, but never did.
The victory was sweet. It's funny to watch guys celebrate, to be overwhelmed with the joy of a hard fought win. Somehow it liberates them to show emotions that are kept stored away most of the time. I don't know as if I've ever experienced that sort of yell and jump around and tackle your buddies kind of joy before. Maybe it's my native Maine reserve. But I love to see that kind of joy, that love of one's teammates and brothers in arms. Maybe when I get to heaven and have my glorified body that doesn't get nasty viruses, when I see the One who created and laid down his life for me I will whoop it up and dance like David danced before the Lord, so filled with divine love that I have to express it somehow. For now, I will just type and say that, yes, it is so good to know that people love you and to have people to love in return. It's not a explicit part of the curriculum here at GGCA, but it infuses all that we do. Our school is a place where people can find love, just like our church is, and the secret is to just let God love you through the people He has placed in your life, and you will find you have more than enough love to share with others. And that's a rarity in this world.
I was wakened by a loud banging on my front door. I roused myself from slumber, pulled on a pair of jeans, and stumbled to the door to find my dapperly dressed brother Doug on my doorstep. know that I must have been a sight - three days growth of beard, major bed head hair, perhaps pillow creases on my face, and the bedraggled, groggy expression I gave him as I squinted in the sunlight. He told me that I had everyone worried since I had not answered my phone or sent word that I would not be in to work that day. He said GGCA had called, he had called, my parents had called... I was more than a little chagrined. He had left work to check up on his delinquent big brother. I assured him that I was alive and he left chuckling saying he would inform everyone that I was not dead.
I fell back asleep and awoke sometime later to more knocking and this time found Nathan McFarland on my doorstep with a delivery of homemade chicken soup (made by his wife, Laura) and an apple crisp made by Paula Lange. Again, I wondered what I must have looked like, thanked him for the kind gift, and returned to sleep. When I woke again, I called my parents to assure them their eldest had not succumbed to some virulent virus, and my mother said, "Well, if anything good can be said about this, it's that you know how much people love you." I agreed. I found out the next day that Jen Lynch had begun mentally planning my face to face service. I should have asked her what it would have been like...
Tonight I am at home resting on my couch, still feeling a few linger after effects of whatever virus hit me. I walked the 5k Heart Walk this morning around the Inner Harbor with Rebecca Canino and some friends and though the walk was not tiring, my run-down system told me that even that amount of activity was all it was going to tolerate today. I spent most of the rest of the day laundering clothes and reading an Alexander McCall Smith novel. It has been a good.
Last night was a great night. Our boys won a decisive championship soccer game on a chilly autumn evening, and it was such a wonderful shutout victory, redeeming the loss we had experienced the year before on a rainy October night. It was great being out with the Body of Christ, cheering on our guys. I got to stand alongside Luke Still's mom and dad and listen to them call out their encouragement to all the players during the first half, the one where Jack Hadley scored that amazing goal from far out which sailed over the goalkeeper's head into the net. It was like watching one of those heat-seeking guided missiles zero in on its designated target. BOOM! Goal! I also enjoyed the company of Lisa Schaller and Sue Williams as they cheered on their sons. For a petite lady, Mrs. Schaller can surely whoop and holler pretty big! It was funny to watch Mrs. Williams gasp and look away whenever her son Matt barreled across the field on defense, ending up somersaulting on the turf and bouncing to his feet with a fresh, bloody scrape, but otherwise unhurt. He always looked about to break his neck, but never did.
The victory was sweet. It's funny to watch guys celebrate, to be overwhelmed with the joy of a hard fought win. Somehow it liberates them to show emotions that are kept stored away most of the time. I don't know as if I've ever experienced that sort of yell and jump around and tackle your buddies kind of joy before. Maybe it's my native Maine reserve. But I love to see that kind of joy, that love of one's teammates and brothers in arms. Maybe when I get to heaven and have my glorified body that doesn't get nasty viruses, when I see the One who created and laid down his life for me I will whoop it up and dance like David danced before the Lord, so filled with divine love that I have to express it somehow. For now, I will just type and say that, yes, it is so good to know that people love you and to have people to love in return. It's not a explicit part of the curriculum here at GGCA, but it infuses all that we do. Our school is a place where people can find love, just like our church is, and the secret is to just let God love you through the people He has placed in your life, and you will find you have more than enough love to share with others. And that's a rarity in this world.
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