{"id":773,"date":"2014-04-11T10:56:00","date_gmt":"2014-04-11T10:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/04\/grief-and-the-promise-of-life.html"},"modified":"2014-04-11T10:56:00","modified_gmt":"2014-04-11T10:56:00","slug":"grief-and-the-promise-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/04\/grief-and-the-promise-of-life.html","title":{"rendered":"Grief and the Promise of Life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

by Peter Gathje<\/a><\/span>
R3 Contributor<\/span>

<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n


<\/span>A guest I\u2019ll call \u201cTom,\u201d shared a bit about his life with me this past Thursday morning. He moved to Memphis with his family from Milwaukee when he was seven. He\u2019s lived in Memphis ever since. When he was seven, his father died. When he was twelve, his mother died. When he was twenty-four, his grandmother died. He had no other living relatives that could care for him or about him, so he was alone in the world. He did construction work for the next twenty years, until he was hurt on the job and couldn\u2019t work anymore. He said he drank a lot for most of those years, but he has been sober for the past three years.\u00a0<\/span>

<\/span>Along the way he was married, but his wife left him, and also left him with a lot of debt. \u201cGod\u2019s getting me through it; most days. Some days its just hard, but I try not to get focused on the negative. It just makes me bitter and I don\u2019t want to be bitter.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>

<\/span>Through the loss of work and the debt Tom lost his home and now lives in his car. Tom asks me each day for a \u201cword for the day.\u201d But before I could share some Scripture with him today, I got called into the house for a few minutes, and by the time I got back Tom was having a heated argument with another guest. Both were asked to leave. Another guest said to me, \u201cHe\u2019s carrying a heavy load and just snapped.\u201d Indeed he does and he did. He\u2019s welcome back Monday.\u00a0<\/span>

<\/span>With the sun shining and temperatures rising, I got a lot of questions about when we\u2019ll be opening the backyard. Our backyard is like a little park, with picnic tables, plenty of shade from the trees (once they get those leaves back), and a lot more room than the house. Guests can spread out and relax. My answer, \u201cWe\u2019ll open the backyard when it is consistently in the 50\u2019s at opening time.\u201d I hope that is soon.\u00a0<\/span>

<\/span>As I was picking up a bit in the front yard later in the morning, a guest asked me if I knew Ethel Sampson. Indeed I did. She was active for many years in our work for abolishing the death penalty. Then she just got a bit too infirm to be out on picket lines or participating in vigils on the front steps of Immaculate Conception Cathedral during the time of an execution.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cHow\u2019s she doing?\u201d I asked.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cShe died about two years ago.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cShe was a great lady. Always doing something good for other folks.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cI know. She took me in for quite a while.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n


<\/span>Spring is a strange time. There are signs of new life all around with flowers and trees blooming, and birds building nests. But there are reminders of winter, the cold front that occasionally blows through dropping temperatures, the still bare trees. It is Lent before Easter. Guests carry grief while holding to the promise of life, and we do too.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Peter GathjeR3 Contributor A guest I\u2019ll call \u201cTom,\u201d shared a bit about his life with me this past Thursday morning. He moved to Memphis with his family from Milwaukee when he was seven. He\u2019s lived in Memphis ever since. When he was seven, his father died. When he was twelve, his mother died. When […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nGrief and the Promise of Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"by Peter GathjeR3 ContributorA guest I\u2019ll call \u201cTom,\u201d shared a bit about his life with me this past Thursday morning. 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