42

Happy Friday Friends!

I hope and trust this post finds you having a great day as a beautiful new day is dawning in Arizona.

It has been a sad, heartbreaking, emotional - every word seems so inadequate to describe the tragedies that have unfolded - week. Please pray for those directly impacted by the tragedies in Boston and Texas. If you are not a praying person, if you don't believe in God, please send good karma, good thoughts, whatever it is you do to our hurting Friends. The pain to me is unimaginable...I can't comprehend the loss. And please don't forget to pray for our Friends in Newtown and Colorado...while we move on with our lives, theirs are forever scarred.

My spirit is also convicting me to encourage us all to choose very carefully what we will focus on, where we will put our faith, our hopes, our dreams. The reality is none of us know the day or the hour that our time on this earth will end...I think that is a part of the sting of watching a tragedy unfold from a distance. We are brought face to face with the reality that we could easily be the people we are watching on TV. Please ponder this thought; Today is a fresh new day. You can do whatever you want with this day however you will never get to live it again. We can choose to focus on the loss, the pain, the sorrow, the misery or we can live lives that honor those who we have lost and live life to the fullest, walk by faith, press on with hope, striving every day to become a better person and to make a difference in the lives of others. Please Friends, focus on life. It is through living fully that we honor the precious lives our hearts mourn. 

In the next couple of weeks please go see "42", the movie about Jackie Robinson. There you go, if you do nothing else other than that this "Happy Friday" will have served a great purpose! :)

Last Friday night the entire Haslam family, including our beloved Uncle Phil, went to see "42". Jackie Robinsons story in breaking baseball's color barrier is incredibly - again, an inadequate word - inspiring. I could write "Happy Friday" for the next year based simply on lessons learned from the life he lived and still not do justice to him. Just the same, I want to share two take-aways I had from watching the movie for the first time...of yes, I will be watching it again!

1. "I want a man who has the guts not to fight back!" This is a line in the movie when Branch Rickey, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, is explaining to Jackie Robinson that he will give him the opportunity to play Major League Baseball if he agrees that he will not fight back, if he will not react to the racism, harassment, injustices that they both knew he would face.

"That's not fair!" You ever heard it? You ever said it? If you have precious little souls under the age of say 20 living in your house chances are the only reason you haven't heard it today is they are not up yet! How about you? (I am talking to myself, you are welcome to listen!) Why do we get offended when a car pulls out in front of us? How about when someone cuts in line? We react, right? Maybe we get a dirty look on our face, perhaps we say something, no doubt we say something deep in our hearts that our Mom's and God would not be proud of!

Jackie Robinson was different...he couldn't say anything. He knew if he said something he would forsake the opportunity of other men of color to ever play Major League Baseball...at least for the foreseeable future. You see, he was living his life for others, serving something greater than himself. There is a seen in the movie that seriously rattled my spirit. The Dodgers are playing at Pittsburgh. Jackie is up to bat and the manager from the Pirates comes and stands at the front of the dugout and begins yelling racial slurs, insulting Jackie, talking about Jackie's wife, about Jackie's teammates, about Jackie's teammates wives, etc. I am white, 45-years old, I am sitting in a cool, air-conditioned movie theater on a beautiful Friday night with my precious family next to me and I swear to you if that guy was next to me I would have mopped the entire movie theater with that guys butt! And Jackie? He can say, he can do nothing. You want to talk about fair...

After this has occurred during a couple of Jackies at-bats he goes down in the tunnel behind the dugout. In that moment he let's out all of the emotions he has suppressed. I am reminded of the moment in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus sweats drops of blood because He does not want to do what God has called Him to do. God had called Jackie and Jackie didn't want to do what God wanted him to do either. Praise God they both did it anyways! Branch Rickey comes walking up to Jackie in the tunnel. They say several things however the one thing I will never forget is when Branch Rickey says, "You are living your sermon."

Two thoughts on this first point; first, the next time you feel you are being treated unfairly, before you say or do something that you might ultimately regret, please simply say to yourself "42." Pause and reflect on it for a moment. I am not for a moment proposing that you allow an injustice in your life, I am simply encouraging us to live righteous, not self-righteous lives. Second, please remember that we are all living our sermons. Good, bad or indifferent the lives we are living are speaking into the lives of others.

2. The other thing that really strikes me is how we all want the victory, the success, the fruits of the labor, we just don't want the struggle, the fight, the work to achieve those things. How many baseball players would like to have their number retired by all of Major League Baseball? Jackie Robinson is the only player to ever have his number retired by every team. I am fairly certain a whole bunch of players - perhaps all - would think it would be awesome to have their number retired. I am even more certain that the list of players willing to go through what Jackie went through would be incredibly small...if there is even one.

Before we wish we had what someone else has we need to measure the cost. Everything, everything has a cost associated with it. We don't like it however just because we don't like it doesn't mean it is not true. We get out of something what we put into it...we reap what we sow...what's in the well always comes up in the bucket...the list goes on and on.

Please think about it Friends. What is your purpose? What have you been called to do? I am fairly certain that there will be trials & tribulations on your journey. I am equally certain, that when you rise to the greatness that is within you, you will live a life of great honor.

Please don't hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you or your family. I will always be willing to help you any way I can.

Have a great day, a wonderful weekend and please cherish your precious families & friends.

Kev