Well the reason I got to preach today is because of the little girl that you see on this post. She is the brand new girl of our Sr. Minister, who was born at 3:24 this morning. I got a chance to visit with them later on and it was such a beautiful sight. She was just 9 hours old and all curled up in daddy’s arms. She was making this little baby sounds that just melt your heart. To hear these sounds coming from this new life just makes all the stuff we go through worth the pain. She is precious. Life is precious. Those sounds were precious. It was a precious moment.
The afternoon proved to be rather hot. So I took a break from that “hot” weather, and went to see Iron Man. It was highly suggested to me and so I went. Rather rather excellent I must say. You should go see Iron Man. That is a movie all about heart, fighting an inner conflict, and beating the demons that you thought were stronger than you. And that’s when you realize that you are stronger than iron. And I don’t think they could have picked anybody better than Robert Downey Jr. to live this role.
But it was what I did after the movie that made it surreal, full circle if you will. I decided to go for a run and the place that my car took me was the cemetery. I know, it’s a little strange, but at the same time, rather peaceful. Imagine pounding the pavement, relieving the stress of the week, the mental roller coaster, the release of adrenaline that was keeping you going throughout the day. Then all of a sudden, you hear the voices of those present. Mind you, nobody was in the cemetery. It was around 7:00 this evening and it was just me and a few thousand rested souls. I heard the people at rest. I heard their families. I heard the moments that they had to say goodbye. I heard the tears of those who left too soon and I heard sighs of relief from those who had suffered much too long. At the same time, there was a sense of peace. It was calm. The Memorial Day flags were still up as a reminder of those who sacrificed and you could see flowers of those who had recently visited. Then as I was sitting by the pond, the bull frogs started talking. I wondered if it was God with a weird sense of humor, but they just started talking to one another.
As I was running, I came through a scene in one of my favorite movies, “The Contender”. Joan Allen’s character, Laine Hanson, is running through the Arlington Cemetery, as the President of the United States, is speaking to a joint session, talking about the unbelievably strong character that she maintained through a bloody assault from those who didn’t think she deserved the VP nomination. The whole experience of going through a struggle, whether it’s a public one or private, makes anybody want to consider quitting, but then you keep running and you keep going to the next level, because it could only make you stronger and eventually, when you least expect it, it just may give you new life – even as you are running through a cemetery.
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