January 6, 2023
Good afternoon,
Damar Hamlin had a heart attack on Monday while playing in an NFL football game. Mr. Hamlin plays for the Buffalo Bills. He collapsed on the field after making a tackle. The trainers/medical staff rushed onto the field and realized the severity of the situation, and immediately began CPR, and minutes later they used an AED defibrillator on Mr. Hamlin. Although I was not watching the game, there has been a week of talking about it on sports, news and talk shows. I could not get away from it. It was my experience of 15 years ago, although I do not have any memory of the life-saving measures of the moment.
Do you have memories of life changing moments in your life ? If you can go back to those moments, do they bring relief or stress ? Would you focus on the joy that came out of that experience or would you focus on the things that were challenging going forward ? The letters from the apostle Paul almost always talk about the joy of the cross for our faith. So, he tries to give new meaning and joy to the tragic death of Jesus. Some of the other disciples or his mother Mary might have seen it differently. Mary kept pondering all of these events in her heart. How long would you have lamented the cross and Jesus’ rising and going back to heaven ? He was not with them in the flesh anymore.
Mr. Hamlin seems to be recovering well. At this point there is no neurological damage. ( The medical staff worked on him on the field for ten minutes to get him breathing again.). He is still on a respirator, but he can write notes to the family and the staff. He wrote, ‘ Did we win the game ? ‘, and one of the doctors said to him, ” Yes you did. Damar you won in the game of life.” And so did I 15 years ago.
Prayer
Dear God of life, death and resurrection,
Be with us,
in the light and dark parts of our life,
so we might feel your touch, in our lives together.
We need you, we want you and we love you.
AMEN.
Fred
birds perch on branches
joining the peaceful chorus
of Courage’s song Monika Pieper Landoni
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