Family, Healing and Love.......

To my readers (though they be few),

I have not posted for awhile, life has been hectic and exhausting for me over the last month. Right now I am in Kansas City, Missouri. My brother in law Cory was in a severe motorcycle accident and was flown from Topeka, Kansas to Kansas City, Kansas to the University of Kansas Hospital (what a mouth full). He is in very critical condition, but definitely appears to be improving. There is a team of medical professionals working on bringing Cory back to health and healing. I am part of a team of people helping to put the pieces back together for his wife (my sister in law) Nyssa. Cory's Mom and and Step Dad are also here assisting Nyssa to find an apartment to sleep in and money to live on. The military as been very helpful during this emergency as well as family and friends. I believe Nyssa is in good hands when I leave, of course I place her in God's hands. This is whole experience is a testimony to the frailty of the human body and the arrogance we assume in thinking we are invincible. God is very merciful towards us, and it is in that mercy that I live and breath. A family emergency disrupts every ones life. I have given up so much in the last month to help my family. I believe that God will not only redeem the time, but the finances that I have poured into these crisis's.

A very interesting aspect of this story is the fact that over a week ago I was inspired to buy a book by Brennan Manning called, "The Wisdom of Tenderness". It was certainly a timely and appropriate book for the assignment God would give me this week. It focuses on losing the religiosity that traps our ability and willingness to assist those in need. Jesus sees human being in a different light than we see each other. He was not trapped by dogma or self interest, He was motivated by what He saw the Father doing. One of the major things that I saw read in the book that inspired me was the story by Miguel Cervantes about Don Quixote. Don is a half crazed night who has romantic notions of recapturing the lost chivalry of a bygone era. One story that inspires me the Brennan brought up in His book is the story of Aldonza (also called Dulcinea). Dulcinea is a fictional character who is referred to (but does not appear) in Miguel de Cervantes' novel Don Quixote. She is also known as Dulcinea del Toboso, Aldonza Lorenzo, and Aldonza de Toboso. . When Don and Sancho meet her Don immediately starts refering to her as Dulcinea. Dulcinea means Ladylove or a woman who is a man's sweetheart. Don Quixote says to Sancho of Dulcinea/Aldonza, "For me, in the same way, it's enough to think and believe that your good Aldonza Lorenzo is beautiful and modest, and her ancestry doesn't make much difference either, because no one's going to come searching out her pedigree, in order to confer any titles on her, while as far as I'm concerned she's the loftiest princess in the whole world. . . . And so, to sum it all up, I perceive everything I say as absolutely true, and deficient in nothing whatever,and paint it all in my mind exactly as I want it to be, whether as to beauty or to nobility, so that Helen of Troy can't match her, and Lucretia can't come close, nor can any famous women in all history, whether Greek, Barbarian or Roman."

Here is some dialogue:
ALDONZA: Why do you do these things?
DON QUIXOTE: What things?
ALDONZA :These ridiculous... the things you do!
DON QUIXOTE: I hope to add some measure of grace to the world.
ALDONZA: The world's a dung heap and we are maggots that crawl on it!
DON QUIXOTE :My Lady knows better in her heart.
ALDONZA: What's in my heart will get me halfway to hell. And you, Señor Don Quixote-you're going to take such a beating!
DON QUIXOTE: Whether I win or lose does not matter.
ALDONZA: What does?
DON QUIXOTE: Only that I follow the quest.
ALDONZA: (spits) That for your Quest! (turns, marches away; stops, turns bock and asks, awkwardly) What does that mean... quest?
DON QUIXOTE: It is the mission of each true knight... His duty... nay, his privilege! To dream the impossible dream, To fight the unbeatable foe, To bear with unbearable sorrow To run where the brave dare not go; To right the unrightable wrong. To love, pure and chaste, from afar, To try, when your arms are too weary, To reach the unreachable star! This is my Quest to follow that star, No matter how hopeless, no matter how far, To fight for the right Without question or pause, To be willing to march into hell For a heavenly cause! And I know, if I'll only be true To this glorious Quest, That my heart will lie peaceful and calm When I'm laid to my rest. And the world will be better for this, That one man, scorned and covered with scars, Still strove, with his last ounce of courage, To reach the unreachable stars!

Don sees something in the world worth saving, worth redeeming, just as he does in Aldonza. To me this the story of my faith in God. Christ is Don Quixote and and we are Aldonza whom he refers to as Dulcinea. We are so much more valuable than we ever thought. The lesson in all this is that I need to proceed without judgement, without conditions, just as Christ did for me. So I may look like a fool, but is this distinction that makes me what I am. I pray that I have the passion of Don Quixote to see the world as being Dulcinea, rather than Aldonza.

Loving Jesus,

Chaplain Jeremy