Pitching Against Time ~ Ease His Pain

Greetings Dear Reader,

In another baseball movie, Field of Dreams, we see the story unfold of an Iowa farmer who builds a baseball diamond by plowing under his cornfield.  The mystical adventure is about faith and second chances.  It is also about fathers and forgiveness.

The first time I watched this movie an Oscar Wilde quote came to the surface of my mind.  “Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older, they judge them; sometimes they forgive them.”  As the movie and I have aged, I have seen just why I resonate so deeply with it.  I thought that I had dealt with my father issues but have over the last year discovered, and interacted with an entirely new layer.

So many of us carry things that our parents put on us.  We struggle to lay them down but it is difficult.  We are burdened by them and they work for good or ill depending upon how we carry them.  The root to peace with these things is forgiveness.  The flower of peace, however, is much harder to find.  It requires more than forgiveness.  It requires that we reach the place where we honor our parents.  It requires that we see past the circumstance and behavior to the needs of the person.

I am talking about deep forgiveness.  I am talking about finding ways to ease the pain of those who hurt us.  Again, the idea of baseball is paramount here.  Every moment in the game is made up of new opportunity to do the right thing.  Every pitch is the beginning of the binary choice to act or not act.  Every encounter with those who need the full flower of our forgiveness is the same. 

Following Christ is about easing the pain of others.  I truly believe that most of what we do wrong is in response to pain and fear.  When love is employed it can cast out that pain and fear.  It is in showing love to those who we feel do not deserve it that we can find the deepest peace.  We might also ease their pain.  We may succeed in easing our own. 

The idea, Dear Reader, is to love so deeply that fear and pain lose their power.  As I try to employ this, it hurts and forces me to confront the things I would not.  It is, however, the path that seems to yield the peace I need.  Thank you for your company on this journey.

Prayer of Saint Francis – Sarah McLachlan

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace;

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is error, the truth;

Where there is doubt, the faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek

To be consoled, as to console;

To be understood, as to understand;

To be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

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