To dare to live again: the twelfth faith characteristic listed in
Alton’s letter recognizes the courage, effort, and faith required to get up
again after a fall. There is a
temptation to throw in the towel, to give up, to accommodate oneself to loss in
destructive ways—to be complicit in utter resignation and defeat. Rep.Gabrielle Gifford is a stellar example of
the contray. Shot in the head in January
2011, her efforts to surmount the burden of serious injury have been inspirational. While health issues are often the occasion in
which we are called upon to dare to live again, the need for renewal can follow
any type of tragedy or loss. Perhaps the
biggest threat to revitalization is a romanticized fixation on the
nonrecoverable. We can end up worshiping
yesterday rather than living today. What
must be understood is that we honor the past most assuredly by living today to
the fullest. For example, how can we
best honor those dearest to us who have died?
Certainly not by closing ourselves up in a room of dusty memories, but
by affirming the loving spirit of our lost ones in the lives we live today. Essentially phony, self-endulgent denial of
life does not show faith, but fundamental doubt in God, in ourselves. Faith is evidenced most reliably in our dare
to live again.
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