Someone once compared life to a great journey for which we carry two roadmaps. One map contains the streets, highways, crossroads and bridges where they are actually located; the second map is a scheme of the streets, highways, etc. where we think they should be. Of course, one map will prove useful in helping us find our way; the other will not.
Roy Campanella, a great footballer, had two such road maps for his life. His successful stint as catcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers was right on track, following the path he thought it should. Then the car accident, which caused his paralysis and wheelchair, moved his career aside and proved to be a blockade of the road, which also deviated from the path of his life. When he was forced to accept and follow the map which reality handed to him, he found strength in the following:
I asked God for strength, that I might achieve.
I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey . . .
I asked for health, that I might do great things.
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things. . .
I asked for riches, that I might be happy.
I was given poverty, that I might be wise. . .
I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men.
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God. . .
I asked for all things that I might enjoy life.
I was given life, that I might enjoy all things. . .
I got nothing I asked for – but everything I had hoped for
Almost despite myself, my unspoken words were answered.
I am, among men, most richly blessed.
Today Luke’s declarations of “blessing” and his ominous “miseries” offer his readers a choice between two maps. One map sees life’s journey and all its bumps and potholes as a place to meet God, as a place where God’s power can be accepted and as a prelude for blessings yet come. The other way plots a path of destruction; the way of self-promotion at the expense of others leads nowhere.
That Campanella was able to recognize the direction his life had taken as a blessing rather than a curse is indicative of a deep and solid faith.
In today’s scripture readings, you and I are challenged to a similar faith as it examines the blessing of human need before God.
A life like a great journey
