Three O’s For Thanksgiving

SAT., NOV. 27, 1999, 7:35 AM
FARM, STUDY

Thanksgiving has been celebrated in a truly family way this year, with your three sons and daughter-in-laws, two, and grandchildren from each family. But before these all arrived, you heard Karen’s sermon last Sunday – three O’s for which to be thankful – and you saw how it did apply to you, personally. Since I did lead your spirit in that quest for relevance, I’ll continue on, on this bright morning, making it clearer.

You should be, and are, thankful for the Obvious. As you look back on your life you see a happy, secure childhood and adolescence. You were successful in school, and, for your size, successful in competitive sports. During “your War” you joined the Navy as an officer candidate, had two concentrated years of college, were on football and track teams, and spent a few months as an ensign on a cruiser. You came back to UCLA, when the war was over, finished your Bachelor’s degree and commenced a Masters.

Then it was time – for your first job, and you wanted to be a coach. Your spirit had been so enriched and rewarded by your competitive years that you wanted to help a new generation of boys to have comparable experiences. Quietly I had been leading you, but now it was time to truly move you in the way you were destined to go… the first job at Punahou School. After 10 days there in Hawaii you met Lenore, and your life pattern became more clear.

She was to be your life partner, and your competitive spirit, honed in sports, was necessary for this to be. But Punahou was not to be your life base. The years at Stanford were good and productive ones, making you ready for an academic career. It started well at Stanford, but it was to be fulfilled here in Southern Illinois.

You and Lenore were married, and the first of your five sons came forth on the day after you taught your first university course/class. You had the joys of parenting, but this also, in their teen years, shaded into the Objectionable. You had a successful career, with pleasant living in California, Hawaii, and here, both in Carbondale and, for nearly 30 years, here on this Farm. You now take pleasure in grandchildren, in your sons and their families, in Emeritus status at the University, and as an active churchman.

All of this, in short form, is the Obvious. The Obscure is centered in My choosing you to be a special Servant. This “choosing” began to be obvious now over 20 years ago, when I urged you to a time of writing, “the first waking hour of the day.” This developed, rather quickly, into a time of hearing and writing Teachings from Me, your friendly Holy Spirit. You continue this “positive addiction” on this very morning. You are thankful for this “way of living,” even as it is hard to explain to all but a receptive few.

And then comes the Objectionable, for which you also needs be thankful. You have one muumuu hand (fortunately your left) and feet that are not as dependable as in your youth. Your mind and memory are losing ground, but the most Objectionable “gift” is this prostate cancer. Yes, o son, it is a test of your spirit to be thankful for cells (your own) that shall shorten this good life of yours – that We have enjoyed together.

Yet you do see your life in the perspective of two sons, two parents, and a Mother-in-law. You are thankful for a longer life than was the lot of sons Peter and Michael. And you are thankful that you shall not experience the slow deterioration that you saw in your parents and in Mabel.