Preciousness of Life

I strive. I run faster. I run further. I reach in my career. I reach in my family life. I reach in my music playing.

I encourage each of my sons to reach. I encourage each person I mentor to strive. All of this is focused on attainment.

Attainment is wonderful.

Attainment without love is meaningless.

Attainment without a sense of why one is attaining and a moral guide leaves me nowhere.

I am lucky to have the love and the sense of why and the moral guide.

But sometimes I forget how easily those can slip away.

How life itself can be taken from us.

Yesterday, I read that a colleague lost his eight year old son—to what was thought to have been a blood infection.

I have been known to have little to speak. I rarely find myself at a loss for written words. Yesterday was such a day. Other than “I am so sorry” there are no words that I could think of to express the devastation of having a child die at such a tender age.

I will end this morning not with my own words but with the words of my colleague. And then I will take a moment of silence. In his wisdom, my colleague wrote, “It wasn't what God said to Job that mattered, it was that he spoke. We wait to hear his voice.”

Sirach 34:9-12

Just two days after Easter and I'm writing again. Why? Patterns. For anyone who has seen the new Kiefer Sutherland series called Touch, you know that the premise is that Sutherland's character is a single father whose wife died on 9/11 and whose son has never said a word. But in the first episode they communicate through numbers for the first time and subsequent episodes continue the theme. One of the supporting characters tells Sutherland that when his son sees numbers they reveal the world.

Well, yesterday I had a bit of inspiration. A student of mine (yay for Isadora) defended her dissertation. It was the third defense I'd attended in the past month. For two of the students I was either the student's advisor or co-advisor. Both students whom I had an advisor (rather than simply committee member) role for defended on the 9th day of the month. When I added Isadora's final defense to the list of those I'd attended I noticed 3/9/12 and 4/9/12. Combining those, I thought of 34912. (Of course there are other combinations, but that easily translates into 34:9-12). There are not many books of the Bible with 34 chapters. I looked in Psalms--no good. I then looked to other books of wisdom (only fitting as it was two PhD students whose defenses inspired me to look this up) and turned to Sirach. For my Protestant friends, Sirach is one of those "Catholic only" books. What does Sirach 34:9-12 say? Here:

A much-traveled person knows many things; and one with much experience speaks sense.
An inexperienced person knows little, 

whereas with travel one adds to resourcefulness.
I have seen much in my travels, and learned more than I could ever say.

What does this say to me?  It shows the importance of experience.  It shows the importance of going out into the world and participating.  It shows the importance of becoming resourceful.

It says, "Live a little!"  It say, "Don't hide."  It makes me think of the story of the talents.  It makes me think of how I learn.  It makes me think of the difference between running a road or trail and running on a treadmill.  It makes me think of the difference between running alone and running with others.  It makes me think of everything a person can do to gain experience.  To gain insight.  To gain from being different places doing different things with different people.  It makes me think of how being inexperienced can be constricting and limiting.

Of course, everyone is inexperienced before they are experienced.  The key for me is to maximize my opportunities for experience and to attempt to learn from every one of them.  

Learn things that will help in my continued physical development or health.

Learn things that will help in my continued spiritual development and well being.

Learn things that will help me to continue to grow.

Learn things that will continue to help be to become everything God sent me here to become.

The opportunities are there for me to take.  If I do not take them and do not gain the wisdom that is there for the taking it is my own fault.   

But if I take every opportunity that is presented, I truly hope that I can someday utter the last line speaking truthfully--that all my experiences will have taught me more than I could ever say.  

1 Kings 3:14-25

OK. I ran only one race this winter before the marathon on Sunday--and when I ran that one I didn't link either my bib number or my time to a Bible verse. This time, I am going to link both my bib number (in a later entry) and my time. My time, as everyone who reads my blog regularly knows by now, was 3:14:25. My link to scripture will be form the Old Testament this time: 1 Kings 3:14-25. (And, I know the 1 was not part of my time, but this really is the best verse.) From the Catholic approved New American Bible-Revised Edition

"And if you walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and commandments, as David your father did, I will give you a long life. Solomon awoke; it was a dream! He went to Jerusalem, stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, sacrificed burnt offerings and communion offerings, and gave a feast for all his servants.

Later, two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. One woman said: “By your leave, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth in the house while she was present. On the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth. We were alone; no one else was in the house with us; only the two of us were in the house. This woman’s son died during the night when she lay on top of him. So in the middle of the night she got up and took my son from my side, as your servant was sleeping. Then she laid him in her bosom and laid her dead son in my bosom. I rose in the morning to nurse my son, and he was dead! But when I examined him in the morning light, I saw it was not the son I had borne.” The other woman answered, “No! The living one is my son, the dead one is yours.” But the first kept saying, “No! the dead one is your son, the living one is mine!” Thus they argued before the king. Then the king said: “One woman claims, ‘This, the living one, is my son, the dead one is yours.’ The other answers, ‘No! The dead one is your son, the living one is mine.’” The king continued, “Get me a sword.” When they brought the sword before the king, he said, “Cut the living child in two, and give half to one woman and half to the other.”

What does this say to me.  Well, it is all about Solomon's following God--he was all in.  This is a theme I've discussed a lot lately.

It also shows Solomon's wisdom.  The story ends, of course, with the prostitute who was actually the child's  mother agreeing to give the child away rather than seeing the child cut in half  and Solomon recognizing that she was the mother.  Why is this important with respect to this marathon?

First, about qualifying for Boston, I really can use the serenity prayer once again.  I have to accept what I cannot change. I cannot change the rules about how to get into Boston.  I cannot change how other people do. I cannot change who chooses to register.  Did it take courage to change and improve my own time?  Some may say so. Others may call it other things.  But separating what I change (whatever is required) from things others have control over is an important step.

Second, during the race, my splits show the wisdom of running a consistent and not too fast first half.  

Finally, the entire reading is simply an overall reflection of the importance of (as it begins) walking in Gods ways.  This time, it was more running in his ways. But, regardless, the key was that I used the gifts that God has given me, I felt God's pleasure, and I have been able to bring a message of hope and accomplishment to those with whom I run in Back on My Feet.