Friday, November 14, 2003

But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.
(1 Thessalonians 5.8 NRSV)

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I read a story about a young man named Sal. Sal was thirty years old, vigorous and athletic, when he developed multiple myeloma, a painful and disabling form of bone cancer from which he died two years later. In some ways Sal's last two years were the richest of his life. Though he lived in considerable pain and though he was encased in a full body cast (because of multiple bone fractures), Sal found great meaning in life by being of service to many young people.

Sal toured high schools in the area counseling teenagers on the hazards of drug abuse. He used his cancer and his visibly deteriorating body as powerful leverage in his mission. He was extraordinarily effective: the whole auditorium trembled when Sal, in a wheelchair, frozen in his cast, exhorted: "You want to destroy your body with nicotine or alcohol or heroin? You want to smash it up in autos? You're depressed and want to throw it off the Golden Gate Bridge? Then give me your body! Let me have it! I want it! I'll take it! I want to live!"

No matter what health our bodies are in. We belong to God, and, in God's eyes, we are beautiful.

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Lord Jesus, may I do my best to take care of this body that you have given to me, so that I can share your salvation of hope. Amen.

Ron Newhouse

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