Stories from the Street: Brenda's Story

Brenda grew up on the West Side, but she has no family to speak of today. She finds shelter in the evenings at the Pacific Garden Mission, but tells me that the food is not that good. She holds a sign that says, "By the grace of God I am hungry and homeless." What a radical statement that is! Her circumstances are dire but she trusts that God is going to use her in this situation for his glory. Another person might curse God in this situation, but Brenda somehow holds fast to her faith.

Join me in raising $5,000 to help break the cycle of homelessness for women and men like Brenda in Chicago, as I train for this years Chicago Marathon. I invite you to make a tax deductible donation at http://www.active.com/donate/crossroadsrunners/edduffy

Stories from the Street: Ricky's Story

Week 3 of my marathon training has been tough - - first pulling a hamstring and then catching a cold. But that's nothing compared to what folks like Ricky are challenged with every day in the struggle against homelessness.

I met Ricky last week on Grand Avenue. He was recently layed off from his job from the Mayflower Moving Company. As we spoke, he clung to two pictures of his young daughters. He asked for help supporting his family of five.

He was a quiet, proud man. A little embarrassed to be on the street asking for money. But he needed the money to keep a temporary roof over his family's head - - a room at a cheap motel near O'Hare. Say a prayer for Ricky and those like him this week, struggling to provide for their families - - and help me raise money for the homeless as I train for the Chicago Marathon. Peace.

Stories from the Street: Donnie's Story

Perched at his usual spot on the sidewalk outside St. Peter's Church on Madison Street, Donnie is a homeless man who is a fixture in the neighborhood. He struggles to keep things together while living on the street but is grateful for the graces he receives daily. Yesterday a man bought him some new clothes to wear. Last week another offered to pay him $60 to help move their offices. Today he is hoping to get $5.00 to allow him ride the train all night. His shirt says, "I smile because I have no idea what is going on," but he trusts.

He is keenly aware that God's grace is what sustains him. The tone of his voice is eager, not desperate as he asks for money and shares his story. He trusts that God will provide.

Meet Donnie. He is one of the many men and women on the street I am running the Chicago Marathon for this fall. Help me raise $5,000 to help them break the cycle of poverty. http://www.active.com/donate/crossroadsrunners/edduffy

Week One of Marathon Training

So it begins. I awoke to a cold, blustery May morning here in Chicago as our Crossroads Runners group began our training for the Chicago Marathon.

It was nice to start to get to know other runners in the group as we ran and stretched our way from Oz Park to the lakefront. I think we were all a little nervous, thinking, "What have I gotten myself into," and "Are these the people I want to be doing this with?" Without the motivation of training with a group, I'm sure we all would have stayed in bed a bit longer this morning.

On the running path it was interesting to see hundreds of other runners up at 8:00 AM on a Saturday morning running. I think there is comfort in numbers when you think about the madness of training to run 26.2 miles. You figure, "Well at least I'm no the only crazy person who has signed up to run this thing." I think there is a little bit of scoping each other out to see who's got the coolest running outfit and wondering privately if yours measures up. All that ego stuff kind of fades away quickly though when it's time to run. A little bit of conversation here and there, but mostly trying to settle in and center yourself on the long journey ahead. Thanks for your support!

Choose Life!

The obituary read, “A man who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday.” The date was April 12, 1888. The man for whom the obituary was written invented dynamite, a powerful explosive that was used in wartime to blow up bridges, tanks, and buildings. So what would you do if your obituary read that way - - that you got rich by inventing a faster way to kill people? That’s not really a very good legacy, is it?

In this case, this obituary caused the man described to change his life - - because in reality, he was not dead. Someone accidentally mistook him for his brother, Ludvig, who had instead died.

Alfred Nobel, the Swedish chemist, engineer, and innovator got a second chance at life after that obituary was published. All his life he had been successful at his work, but that obituary raised questions in his mind as to whether his great knowledge and gifts were being used to help or to hurt people. Over his lifetime he earned 355 different patents, and spoke six different languages (Swedish, French, Russian, English, German and Italian) but the destructive nature of dynamite was what he was remembered for.

We hear stories like this every year at Christmas, don’t we? We watch movies like “A Christmas Carol” or “It’s a Wonderful Life”, or even “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”. In each of the movies the main character gets a chance to see how good or bad the first half of their life has been and then they get a second chance to make some kind of amends.

In Alfred Nobel’s case, when he DID die, he decided to leave all of his wealth to a foundation that administers the Nobel Peace Prize, a prize that has honored men and women for outstanding achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace for more than one hundred years.

That’s what the spiritual gift of Knowledge is all about. God gives us the power to do wonderful things with gifts he’s given us, but we have the freedom to decide HOW we will us this knowledge. Will we use it for good or for evil? Will we use it to help ourselves or to help our neighbor? Will we use it to build up our kingdom, or God’s Kingdom? As the Book of Deuteronomy says “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19).

It’s no surprise, if you think about it, that this struggle goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. God asked Adam and Eve NOT to eat of the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil, but they did anyway, and their eyes were opened, such that they now knew good and evil like God, but they were naked and ashamed (Genesis 3).

I know in my own life, I’ve used my gift of knowledge often to help people but also to hurt people. It’s not always easy to walk the right path.

When I was 15 age, one of the families I grew up with in Aurora decided to move to Hawaii to go to work and live with a Christian mission. I had always admired them and enjoyed their company. We went camping, fishing, canoeing, and hiking together in the summer and always had a great time. When I heard they were moving to Hawaii I decided to do something special for them. So I went through the drawer of old family photographs we had and put together a special photo album of them and all the places we traveled together over the years. It was a nice thing to do and it served as a lasting memento of all the experiences we shared. They liked it.

On other occasions, as a young man, I used my gift of knowledge to get away with things I knew were wrong. One summer I had a job patrolling the parks and nature trails in town. It was a great job, an easy job, and it paid pretty well too. But I had to spend hours driving around by myself, and it was pretty boring. So I filled my time listening to the Cub games all summer long. Day games, night games, afternoon games, I listened to them all.

To listen to the games, I borrowed a friend of mine’s portable radio and must have gone through four or five sets of batteries just to keep the radio going throughout the summer. One week, however, the batteries went dead while I was patrolling the nature trail, but I got an idea. What if I wired the radio to the battery in the car, then I wouldn’t need to buy any more batteries? Seemed worth a try, so I found some wire and connected the positive terminal of the radio to the battery, and then the negative terminal of the radio to the battery. Within a few seconds, a small plume of smoke rose up from the wires and with it the smell of burning plastic and metal. Huh. I had just fried the radio. I had just fried my friend’s radio.

Well the honest thing to do would have been to apologize to my friend and buy him a new radio, right? I went to the hardware store to see how much a new radio would cost and it was $25 dollars. Twenty-five dollars? Forget it.

So I thought about it and came up with a scheme. I came up with $25 to buy a new radio, but that’s not all. When I got home I unpackaged the brand new radio from all the plastic and styrofoam and set it aside. Then I took the broken radio and repackaged it in the box as if it were new. A day or two later I waltzed back into the hardware store, carrying the box under my arm and plopped it on the counter, and told the cashier, “I’d like to return this radio. I decided I didn’t need it after all.” And a minute later, the cashier handed me $25. So now I had a brand new radio and my $25 back. Clever, huh?

Well that story is not something I’m particularly proud of, but I tell it to make a point. God has given us incredible gifts and the knowledge to use them for good or for evil. The Bible says, “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life.” (Deuteronomy 30:19). Which will you choose? Alfred Nobel decided to change his life and his legacy by using the money he made after inventing dynamite to honor great thinkers and great leaders who have made a difference in the world by giving out the Nobel Peace Prize. What will your legacy be? How will you use your knowledge? You have the freedom to choose. Choose well.

The Transfiguration

"Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother,and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them."

I like you have heard these reading hundreds of time since my childhood and I have found it hard to experience on a personal level. It seems more like us getting a window into the experience of James, John, and Peter.

This Sunday I was struck, however, by the contrast in God's message in the reading. On the one hand we have this vision of Jesus appearing with Moses and Elijah, and then God the Father saying in a booming voice that strikes fear into the apostles, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” If the apostles were looking for a sign of Jesus' divinity they got TWO signs that day: a vision, and the voice of God saying, "Listen up, it's more than just a nice vision, I'm trying to show you that this is the Son of God, my Son. So pay attention and listen to him!"

This is the Old Testament God I'm used to hearing about, the one who reminds me of the booming voice of the Wizard of Oz who scares the Bejesus out of Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion.

Then in contrast, we get the gentle, loving companionship of Jesus. "Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and do not be afraid.” He touches them. He says, "It's okay. I'm with you. Don't be afraid." Thanks the kind of God I need today, a God who touches me. "Rise, and do not be afraid. It's gonna be okay. I will help you. My Father just wanted to show you who I am. I'm sorry He frightened you."

Last year I was blessed to travel to Israel and walk up Mt. Tabor with my fellow pilgrims. It is a very scenic, yet challenging 30 minute walk. I image Jesus walking with Peter, James, and John. This was his inner circle of friends. (They would later be with him at Gethsemane also.) What would they have talked about as they wanted up the mountain? What was the conversation like when they came down?

I imagine they had some kind of hope in their hearts as they walked up the mountain, and that hope was transformed as they descended. This hope was now more than just a feeling, they were shown by God that this hope was real. Jesus was the Son of God, and he was walking with them.

That day the heavens touched the earth in a supernatural way, but the Son of Man also reached out and touched the apostles on the shoulders and said, "Don't be afraid." I'm going to hang on to that idea and sit with it this week.

Loneliness or Solitude?

The spiritual journey is one of both loneliness and solitude. We have to dwell in this place of silence to find God, whether that be in prayer, taking a walk or just taking a break.

Loneliness is about fear. Fear that we are alone, that no one cares, that no one will ease our pain. But we can find God in our loneliness. His grace and love meets us there. He gives us strength, power, and confidence when we have none, and turn our will over to him.

Solitude is a sense of peace we feel when we know who we are in God and we know we are being held and acting in his will. Paradoxically, our nothingness becomes his everything, and we come to know ourselves as his Beloved.

I reflected on these ideas the past two days after reading about Jared Loughner, the accused shooter in Tuscon, Arizona. Jared saw himself as a nihlist, someone who believed that life had no purpose. The world had no meaning for him. His life had no meaning. Yet everyday he woke up and found himself to be alive. He must have felt his life to be a daily curse. If I am given the gift of life each day, but I am convinced that my life has no meaning, then the logical conclusion, as Loughner seemed to have made, was that we should want to die.

As an expert marksman, Loughner had the skill and tools to destroy life. And so he did.

This is the paradox of the spiritual life. God wants to meet us in our loneliness and despair, but we have to invite him in to help us. Loughner found rightly that the external world could not satisfy him, and it seems he was unhappy with this answer. He was struggling for more, but the devil turned his heart toward destruction and physical violence instead of surrender.

Fr. Sertillanges, a Dominican preacher, says, "Suffering is an extreme remedy which either cures the evil or makes it worse, which strengthens or kills." He continues, saying, "Unhappy is he who carries the cross of Jesus but who is not with Jesus."

I pray for Loughner and for men and women like him who are living a life of suffering and despair. I pray that they listen and surrender their hearts to a God who wants to hold them in their loneliness, ease their pain, and invite them into the peace of solitude.