"I'm what the world considers to be a phenomenally successful man. And I've failed much more than I've succeeded. And each time I fail, I get my people together, and I say, "Where are we going?" And it starts to get better." - Calvin Trager
Saturday, May 29, 2004 Some of the best days make some of the least interesting journal entries -- riding bikes with the family to Bread Co., playing computer games and basement soccer with Schroedter, going to a T-ball game, playing with the boys in the park, a great dinner and hanging out time with the Gibsons, home to rocking Hayden to sleep and bedtime stories and prayers with Schroedter.
I remember the sermon Hays Rockwell preached at his installation as Bishop of Missouri a decade or so ago. He had just flown back from Detroit where he had buried his mother. He talked of "the sacrament of the present moment" ... how aware he had been of it in those last days and hours with his mother. How precious each moment is ... and not just precious but revealing of and brimming with God.
Today was a day like that. Maybe it's that a week from now, I'll be on a plane over the Atlantic and I won't see my wife for a month and my kids for six weeks. Whatever it is, I spent a wonderful day very aware of the blessings God has given me in these three amazing people -- Robin, Schroedter and Hayden -- and also in friends like the Gibsons.
Jean Nyere (Rob Slevin's grandmother) died this morning. She lived a good, long life and died having, as Rob said, "done everything on her to-do list" and having had a chance to say goodbye to her family. You can't ask for a much better death than that. It's grace.
And yet, it's not that it's good and so obviously grace-filled like my day today or even Jean's peaceful death that makes it sacramental. Horrible, terrible things, excruciating moments are sacramental, too. Brimming with God's love and passion for us as God shares in the pain with us. It's not pollyanna or just good white, middle-class-and-up American theology to talk about moments as sacramental. It's not just what makes the good moments richer, it's what makes the terrible ones redeemable.
Each moment is a sacrament. And I'm thankful for days like today when it's pretty obvious. I hope they help me remember that it's no less true on those days when it is less obvious. That God is there both times ... and all the times in between.
| Mike at 5/29/2004 09:49:00 PM
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