How to Pray | How to Live
In this vlog I speak with Pam Fontaine, a chemistry teacher at La Salle Academy (the school where I serve as chaplain). She shares how she came to see her bout with cancer as a blessing in her life. She is an inspiration to me. I know you, too, will be inspired by her.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGggVsww_e8]
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On Monday evening, our priest-seminarian basketball team played its first game against St. Patrick Academy students and alumni. It was a great event and quite an intense matchup. Both teams fought to the finish, with the “Padres” (that would be us) prevailing by one point.
Although I missed many more shots than I made, I still contributed six points. I grew up playing basketball, so it was easy for me to get into the competitive spirit of the game; and that spirit really roared with one minute left. The ball was loose and I started to chase it. My Jack Bauer mentality kicked in as I tried to outrace a 14 year-old to the ball: Who does this kid think he is? Surely this 36 year-old can out run him!
Then it happened. As I dove for the ball I felt a POP! And then pain. I immediately winced and grabbed my left hamstring. For a moment I thought it might just be a cramp, so I tried a slow trot. No good. It was a pulled hamstring. I was done. Dejected, I limped off the court. The first thought that came to mind was, I can’t believe I’m not going to be able to run that half marathon.
I had been training for the Hartford half marathon to take place on October 9, and I knew immediately that the injury would take at least a couple of weeks to heal. I had just run eleven miles on Sunday and was feeling more and more confident about the race. Running a half marathon has been a personal goal for quite a while, but now that goal is going to have to be put on hold as my hamstring heals.
Yes, I was frustrated and disappointed; but in the grand scheme of things, it’s really not a big deal. In a few weeks–hopefully–I’ll be back to running, and there’ll be more half marathons in the future. I could have made a big deal out of it and really let my frustration get the best of me. But is it worth it to get frustrated over things that we can’t control?
So, here are a few effective ways that I believe we can deal with disappointment:
1) Ponder the blessings in your life. There are so many people with problems much bigger than a pulled hamstring. I think, for example, about two young people I know who are dealing with the reality that a parent has cancer; or the 14 year old girl I know who just had a brain tumor removed. When we experience a setback in life, we can take time to think about the blessings that we have and the fact that many people are suffering more than we are.
2) Believe that God’s plan is better than your plan. I don’t know why the Lord allowed me to pull my hamstring, except maybe to teach me that I’m not as young and agile as I used to be. But I do believe there’s a reason for everything. There’s a reason I’m not supposed to run that half marathon. I may never know what it is, but I trust that God’s plan is better than mine.
3) Keep going! When we experience disappointment, we need to make sure we keep moving forward. Things are going to happen that we can’t control, but we can’t let those things keep us down. Think of Jesus on the road to Calvary. He fell many times, but he kept getting up out love for us. Stay united to Him, and He will help you to keep moving forward.
How do you deal with disappointment? Feel free to share your insights.
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Now that the academic year is over, I treated myself to a few extra days off this week. On Saturday I drove five hours to Vestal, New York to visit my dear friends Scott and Kim King and their five children (pictured above).
I was amazed and overjoyed watching Scott and Kim with their children. Their love for one another and their kids is so evident. I told Kim she is my heroine. She’s supermom: both days she was up for an early morning run, and her energy never waned until she put the kids to bed, all the while staying cheerful. Scott is such a great father. He was an able assistant in the kitchen—he makes an exceptionally good gin and tonic—, and he readily obeyed Kim’s orders to get little Sam out of her hair when he was becoming a bit too much to deal with. Little Sam is very mischievous, but oh-so-adorable!
The Kings have not had it easy. In December 2006, Macey, their second oldest and only daughter, developed Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare form of cancer. Twice she went into remission, and twice she relapsed. She’s gone through countless rounds of chemotherapy, a number of surgeries, and just more pain than a little girl should have to experience. Scott and Kim have endured many sleepless nights, hours on the road back and forth to the hospital in Syracuse, and many flights to and from Houston for Macey’s visits to MD Anderson Hospital. Read more »
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