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Author
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Topic: Tommy
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barrykind
Advanced Member
Member # 35
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posted
Yes this story inspired me also.. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Keep the faith.. amen
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The HEART of the issue is truly the issue of the HEART!
John 3:3;Mark 8:34-38;James 1:27
Posts: 3529 | From: Orange, Texas | Registered: Jun 2002
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Han-a
Advanced Member
Member # 2209
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posted
That was such a moving story but I agree it was really inspirational. Thank you for telling us.
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Han-a
If Satan knocks at the door let Jesus answer it.
Posts: 200 | From: Nottingham | Registered: Oct 2003
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TwinsGranny
Advanced Member
Member # 2137
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posted
Barry,
Thank you very much for sharing this very inspirational story, it has really touched my heart! Our God surely works in awesome ways, does He not??
God Bless!
Pam
Posts: 218 | From: Illinois | Registered: Sep 2003
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barrykind
Advanced Member
Member # 35
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posted
John Powell, A professor at Loyola University in Chicago writes about a
student in his Theology of Faith class named Tommy: Some twelve years
ago, I stood watching my university students file into the classroom
for
our first session in the Theology of Faith.
That was the day I first saw Tommy. My eyes and my mind both blinked.
He
was combing his long flaxen hair, which hung six inches below his
shoulders. It was the first time I had ever seen a boy with hair that
long. I guess it was just coming into fashion then. I know in my mind
that it isn't what's on your head but what's in it that counts; but on
that day I was unprepared and my emotions flipped. I immediately filed
Tommy under "S" for strange. . ..very strange. Tommy turned out to be
the "atheist in residence" in my Theology of Faith course.
He constantly objected to, smirked at, or whined about the possibility
of an unconditionally loving Father/God. We lived with each other in
relative peace for one semester, although I admit he was for me at
times
a serious pain in the back pew. When he came up at the end of the
course
to turn in his final exam, he asked in a slightly cynical tone, "Do you
think I'll ever find God? " I decided instantly on a little
shock therapy. "No!" I said very emphatically. "Oh," he responded, "I
thought that was the product you were pushing." I let him get five
steps
from the classroom door and then called out, "Tommy! I don't think
you'll ever find Him, but I am absolutely certain that He will find
you!" He shrugged a little and left my class and my life.
I felt slightly disappointed at the thought that he had missed my
clever
line --- He will find you! At least I thought it was clever. Later I
heard that Tommy had graduated and I was duly grateful. Then a sad
report came. I heard that Tommy had terminal cancer. Before I could
search him out, he came to see me. When he walked into my office, his
body was very badly wasted and the long hair had all fallen out as a
result of chemotherapy. But his eyes were bright and his voice was
firm,
for the first time, I believe. "Tommy, I've thought about you so often.
I hear you are sick," I blurted out. "Oh, yes, very sick. I have cancer
in both lungs. It's a matter of weeks." "Can you talk about it, Tom?" I
asked. "Sure, what would you like to know?" he replied. "What's it like
to be only twenty-four and dying?" "Well, it could be worse." "Like
what?" "Well, like being fifty and having no values or ideals, like
being fifty and thinking that booze, seducing women, and making money
are the real 'biggies' in life."
I began to look through my mental file cabinet under 'S' where I had
filed Tommy as strange. (It seems as though everybody I try to reject
by
classification, God sends back into my life to educate me.) "But what I
really came to see you about," Tom said, "is something you said to me
on
the last day of class." (He remembered!) He continued, "I asked you if
you thought I would ever find God and you said, 'No!' which surprised
me. Then you said, 'But He will find you.' I thought about that a
lot, even though my search for God was hardly intense at that time. (My
clever line. He thought about that a lot!) "But when the doctors
removed a lump from my groin and told at it was malignant, that's when
I
got serious about locating God. And when the malignancy spread into my
vital organs, I really began banging bloody fists against the bronze
doors of heaven. But God did not come out. In fact, nothing happened.
Did you ever try anything for a long time with great effort and with
no success? You get psychologically glutted, fed up with trying. And
then you quit.
Well, one day I woke up, and instead of throwing a few more futile
appeals over that high brick wall to a God who may be or may not be
there, I just quit. I decided that I didn't really care about God,
about
an after life, or anything like that.I decided to spend what time I had
left doing something more profitable. I thought about you and your
class and I remembered something else you had said: 'The essential
sadness is to go through life without loving. But it would be almost
equally sad to go through life and leave this world without ever
telling
those you loved that you had loved them.
So, I began with the hardest one, my Dad. He was reading the newspaper
when I approached him." "Dad." "Yes, what?" he asked without lowering
the newspaper. "Dad, I would like to talk with you." "Well, talk." "I
mean . . It's really important." The newspaper came down three slow
inches. "What is it?" "Dad, I love you. I just wanted you to know
that." Tom smiled at me and said it with obvious satisfaction, as
though
he felt a warm and secret joy flowing inside of him. "The newspaper
fluttered to the floor. Then my father did two things I could never
remember him ever doing before. He cried and he hugged me. We talked
all
night, even though he had to go to work the next morning. It felt so
good to be close to my father, to see his tears, to feel his hug, to
hear him say that he loved me." "It was easier with my mother and
little
brother. They cried with me, too, and we hugged each other, and started
saying real nice things to each other. We shared the things we had been
keeping secret for so many years. I was only sorry about one thing ---
that I had waited so long. Here I was, just beginning to open up to all
the people I had actually been close to."
"Then, one day I turned around and God was there. He didn't come to me
when I pleaded with Him. I guess I was like an animal trainer holding
out a hoop, 'C'mon, jump through. C'mon, I'll give You three days,
three
weeks.' Apparently God does things in His own way and at His own hour.
But the important thing is that He was there. He found me. You were
right. He found me even after I stopped looking for Him." "Tommy," I
practically gasped, "I think you are saying something very important
and
much more universal than you realize. To me, at least, you are saying
that the surest way to find God is not to make Him a private
possession,
a problem solver, or an instant consolation in time of need, but rather
by opening to love. You know, the Apostle John said that. He said: 'God
is love, and anyone who lives in love is living with God and God is
living in him.' "Tom, could I ask you a favor? You know, when I had you
in class you were a real pain. But (laughingly) you can make it all up
to me now. Would you come into my present Theology of Faith course
and tell them what you have just told me? If I told them the same
thing it wouldn't be half as effective as if you were to tell them."
"Ooh ..... I was ready for you, but I don't know if I'm ready for your
class." "Tom, think about it. If and when you are ready, give me a
call."
In a few days Tom called, said he was ready for the class, that he
wanted to do that for God and for me. So we scheduled a date.
However, he never made it. He had another appointment, far more
important than the one with me and my class. Of course, his life was
not
really ended by his death, only changed. He made the great step from
faith into vision. He found a life far more beautiful than the eye of
man has ever seen or the ear of man has ever heard or the mind of man
has ever imagined.
Before he died, we talked one last time. "I'm not going to make it to
your class," he said. "I know, Tom." "Will you tell them for me? Will
you . tell the whole world for me?" "I will, Tom. I'll tell them. I'll
do my best." So, to all of you who have been kind enough to hear this
simple statement about love, thank you for listening. And to you,
Tommy,
somewhere in the sunlit, verdant hills of heaven --- I told them,
Tommy,
as best I could.
With thanks,
John Powell, Professor
Loyola University in Chicago
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The HEART of the issue is truly the issue of the HEART!
John 3:3;Mark 8:34-38;James 1:27
Posts: 3529 | From: Orange, Texas | Registered: Jun 2002
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