Craig's Column

I won't have time to run today. Sunday is usually pretty busy for me. Here is my column that was in our bulletin this morning:

Craig’s Column

George Sheehan is one of my heroes. He was the oldest of fourteen children, a cardiologist, and a marathon runner. But his most important contribution to the world was as a writer. He wrote seven books, among them the bestselling Running and Being. George Sheehan died on November 1, 1993. In the months leading up to his death, he wrote a book Going the Distance: One Man’s Journey to the End of His Life. I recently read the book thinking that is was a book about dying. I realized at the end of the book that it was a book about living.

Some of the last words Sheehan had the strength to write were:

Each hour brings new assaults on my body. Mere living has become my Heartbreak Hill. What last words will I have? I can only wait for what comes next. The second Perocet is not as effective. Thirty minutes and I still have pain.
Today the priest came. I was dozing and found myself looking up into the face of Father Brady, our longtime pastor at the church. He is a very kind, soft-spoken man who began his visit by saying: “I’m not here to help you with your theological problems, George, but with your relationship with God.”

In the end, the only thing that really matters much is our relationship with God. But the book was not about dying any more than life is about death. God doesn’t exist only so that we may die well. God exists so that we may live well.

The more we are able to understand how God has shaped us and made us who we are, the more we are aware of God’s individualized plan for our once-to-be-lived and never-to-be-repeated lives. Many of us can recite readily the words of the Lord’s Prayer which goes something like: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done. On earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10) I encourage you to pray a similar prayer that is based on the Lord’s Prayer: “Your will be done in me. I am part of Your earth, Your clay, for which You, the Master Potter, have a design.”

Having God’s kingdom manifested in your life—God’s purposes for you brought to fruition on the earth, even as they were designed and planned in heaven—you will experience the life that you were meant to live!

In Christ,

Craig