Thursday, May 19, 2011

This Life, This Day


I don't know what your high school experience was like, but mine was awesome. Seriously, it was fantastic. My parents gave my siblings and myself the loving gift of sending us to a small private school in Nashville that was known for being 'different'. Many of our competing schools referred to it as 'Camp CPA' because of its unusually wholesome and easy going feel.

Our teachers were the finest, they could have easily taught at bigger, more expensive schools but they saw the worth in such an institution and invested in it whole heartedly. About two months ago, I had a half dozen or so of them over for dinner along with some of our alumni. It was a very precious night. What a treat to let these teachers know how much they meant to us and to get to spend an evening laughing, talking, listening and just fellowshipping together. We stayed up until the next morning giggling over childish jokes with our biology teacher (and there was even a legendary 'that's what she said' joke uttered by an English man...) and I think all of us were a little sad that our days at CPA were so far gone.

Today I was reminded why I remember that community so fondly.

Part of the mystique that surrounds CPA is how the community continues on even after you have left the halls. One, two, five, seven, eight years after graduating, I still respond sharply to the things that affect that family. Their triumphs bring me pride, their good tidings bring me joy and their trials carry in my heart.

A member of their family, Michael Daniel, a sophomore, passed away yesterday afternoon following a traumatic accident. I did not know Michael Daniel, I do not know the Daniel family, they are multiple generations younger in this academic genealogy than myself. But when I heard about his admission to the hospital, I followed the updates constantly-praying that one of the posts would bring good news.

And in a way, it did bring good news. Even in his death, the Daniel family still proclaimed God's goodness. What a testament of faith the following words are:

"Precious son.  Precious brother.  Precious uncle.  Precious friend.  Today we say goodbye to our Precious Michael.

A little after 6 PM Michael's earthly journey came to an end.  Though the original plan was to assess his condition tomorrow morning, his body had had enough.  And truly, it was Michael's way to do things on his own terms.  

Michael, we know, has gone home.  He is made new -- perfect and full of peace.  And in this we find peace too.

Over the past few days, there have been many prayers for a miracle.  God answered that prayer 17 years ago when he made Michael.  There have been many prayers for healing.  God answered this prayer by taking him home.

More to come this evening.  For now, we thank God for Michael, our miracle, and continue to pray for strength and faith."



Reading that reminded me of Soren Kierkegaard's work Fear And Trembling.  In Fear And Trembling, Kierkegaard uses Abraham's trip up the mountain with Isaac as an examination of faith and Abraham's belief in the promise God made to him. It's the same promise God has made to all of us: to love and protect us and never leave us. Such a hard promise to remember during hard circumstances. Kierkegaard elaborates:


"Yet Abraham believed, and believed for this life. Yea, if his faith had been only for a future life, he surely would have cast everything away in order to hasten out of this world to which he did not belong...But Abraham believed precisely for this life, that he was to grow old in the land, honored by the people, blessed by his generation, remembered forever in Isaac, his dearest thing in life, whom he embraced with a love for which it would be a poor expression to say that he loyally fulfilled the father's duty of loving the son, as indeed is evinced in the words of the summons, ''the son whom thou lovest.'' Jacob has twelve sons, and one of them he loved; Abraham had only one, the son whom he loved. Yet Abraham believed and did not doubt, he believed the preposterous."


Here's to living today and recognizing that His promises of hope, peace and blessing are applicable not for the future but for this life, for this day. 


My heart goes out to the Daniel family and thanks them for being an example of embracing God's goodness today.


Blessings,


KB 
  

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for that post, Katie Beth.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for reading, sis. I've enjoyed reading your updates on Little One.

    ReplyDelete

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