THE HARDEST COURSE
“I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course.
I have kept the faith.” --2 Timothy 4:7
In the film, “Educating Rita”, a professor reluctantly rises to the challenge to teach an unassuming hairdresser, a woman in her twenties, the sophistication, values and culture of the university. And, he succeeds: transforming Rita from a peasant to an academic princess of sorts. But, he admits, seeing in her unassuming, unpretentiousness: ''I don't know that I want to teach you, Rita. What you have already is too valuable.” I can help you quote Chekhov and read DH Lawrence, but I cannot give you a reason to live or the power to do so.
As I write this, my own father is struggling to overcome a stroke. This experience, although not a lesson any of us are eager to learn, does have power, with God’s grace, to teach. It reveals how we deal with such circumstances: challenging us to ask how we care for one another; how we overcome; and, if we’re willing, how, with God’s help, we turn obstacles into opportunities that leave us better, changed, transformed.
All through the month of October, the Apostle Paul, though imprisoned and near death, nonetheless, has this to say to his young friend, Timothy: “I have fought the good fight; I have finished the course; I have kept the faith.” May the same be true for us.
God bless you for your faithful prayers, not only for my father--and my mother who cares for him--but for all who struggle, in this world, to breathe, to overcome, to live.
Yours in Christ’s Service,
A Pastor in the Desert
I have kept the faith.” --2 Timothy 4:7
In the film, “Educating Rita”, a professor reluctantly rises to the challenge to teach an unassuming hairdresser, a woman in her twenties, the sophistication, values and culture of the university. And, he succeeds: transforming Rita from a peasant to an academic princess of sorts. But, he admits, seeing in her unassuming, unpretentiousness: ''I don't know that I want to teach you, Rita. What you have already is too valuable.” I can help you quote Chekhov and read DH Lawrence, but I cannot give you a reason to live or the power to do so.
As I write this, my own father is struggling to overcome a stroke. This experience, although not a lesson any of us are eager to learn, does have power, with God’s grace, to teach. It reveals how we deal with such circumstances: challenging us to ask how we care for one another; how we overcome; and, if we’re willing, how, with God’s help, we turn obstacles into opportunities that leave us better, changed, transformed.
All through the month of October, the Apostle Paul, though imprisoned and near death, nonetheless, has this to say to his young friend, Timothy: “I have fought the good fight; I have finished the course; I have kept the faith.” May the same be true for us.
God bless you for your faithful prayers, not only for my father--and my mother who cares for him--but for all who struggle, in this world, to breathe, to overcome, to live.
Yours in Christ’s Service,
A Pastor in the Desert
posted by A Pastor in the Desert | 11:01 AM
