Sep. 4: A Man Forever Changed

Baseball fans know Clayton Kershaw as a gifted young pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers.  But those who read a report by Karen Crouse in The New York Times know that he returned from a visit to the African nation of Zambia as a man forever changed.

Kershaw can thank his wife, Ellen, for the trip. As a college student, she had been to Zambia, and was taken by the plight of the orphans she met—victims of the AIDS epidemic that has devastated the country.  She made their cause her own, working with an organization called Arise Africa.  She rarely stopped talking about returning to the country with Kershaw, who had been her childhood sweetheart and was now her husband.

“You come home,” Kershaw said, “and you see people striving to get more money, more cars, bigger houses and more possessions, thinking that will make them happier.  You go to Zambia, it helps put things in perspective.  You realize where happiness comes from, and it’s not from material goods.”

Where do you think happiness comes from?

A joyful heart is life itself, and rejoicing lengthens one’s

life span.  (Sirach 30:22)

Teach me to find genuine happiness, Lord Jesus.