You are the Sunshine of My life: November 2008

Saturday, November 29, 2008

The Pain of His Child

Many of you know the story. Jim Desmond and his twenty-six-year-old son, Derek. Derek was favored to win the four-hundred meter race in 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Halfway into his semifinal heat, a fiery pain seared through his right leg. He crumpled to the track with a torn hamstring.

As medical attendants were approaching, Derek fought to his feet. "It was an animal instinct," he would later say. He set out hopping, pushing away the coaches in a crazed attempt to finish the race. When he reached the stretch, a big man pushed through the crowd. He was wearing a t-shirt that read "Have you hugged your child today?" The man was Jim Redmond, Derek's father.

"You don't have to do this," he told his weeping son. "Yes, I do," replied Derek. "Well, then." said Jim, "we're going to finish this together." And they did. Jim wrapped Derek's arm around his shoulder and helped him hobble to the finish line. Fighting off security men, the son's head sometimes buried in the father's shoulder, they stayed in Derek's lane to the end. The crowd clapped, then stood, then cheered, and then wept as the father and son finished the race. (Max Lucado)

What made the father do it? What made the father leave the stands to meet his son on the track? Was it the strength of his child? No, it was the pain of his child.

I can tell you as a mother, seeing my child in pain is heart wrenching. I would agree to take the place of my daughter any day of the week in order to spare her little legs from being injected during our doctor's visits. Seeing her in agony brings an overwhelming feeling of sadness over me.

God feels my pain. He yearns to take the broken pieces of my heart and put it back together. If only I let Him.

Friday, November 28, 2008

We ran to feed the hungry (ok, ok, walked)

We joined 28,000 other participants this year for the 15th annual and largest fundraising event for the Sacramento Food Bank. We plan to make it a holiday tradition. We hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving!