I’m feeling a bit less like a loser today, thanks to Mystik Dan.
A picker of ponies I am not. But somehow, I managed to steer a portion of my modest Kentucky Derby wagers toward Mystik Dan to “show.” The steed went on to win yesterday, by the slimmest of margins … and so I won a few bucks back from “the pool” at the wonderfully accommodating watch party hosted by our dear friends. Or more accurately, this payout meant I lost a little less of my initial grubstake than would otherwise have been the case.
Suffice it to say, I don’t intend to parlay my lucky pick into anything like an ongoing hobby (much less an obsession). A man’s got to know his limitations.
Watching the Derby with a roomful of winners…always a blessing!
A man’s got to know his life’s deepest blessings, too – one of whom, in my case, was seated on the sofa next to me after the race wrapped up. Our host for the watch party is a fella I’ve known practically all my life – our friendship spans some 63 years, we calculated yesterday. So I guess you could say that pick turned out pretty well, for both of us.
Maybe it was the “Mystik” in the air at the Derby party that’s been drawing me to contemplate the blessing of our long-standing friendship. Or maybe it’s the Easter season, when liturgical readings encourage us all to become mystics: to ponder how it could be that “God shows no partiality;” or what it means to proclaim that “God is love;” or to receive the challenging reassurance from Jesus, “it was not you who chose me, but I who chose you.”
It was easy for me to feel God’s presence in that room, with my dear friend at my side … along with half a dozen other dear ones I’ve known for decades … … and still more friends I’ve known for only a couple of years. Love flowed freely amongst us – no “winning wagers” required.
Oddly, it was equally easy for me to feel God’s presence inside the prison last Sunday, when I attended the Closing Ceremony for Kairos #22 at Menard. There, I was among strangers. I didn’t really know any of the participants. I was on hand simply to hear their witness. And as they spoke, it became a bit clearer to me that God in fact shows no partiality. God, who is love, offers his grace to anyone with an open heart – including to these perfect strangers, all of whom are doing hard time inside a maximum security facility.
Blessings to be found, too, in this place — behind the walls and razor wire.
There was a moment, as we sang our closing song at Kairos #22, when my eyes met the eyes of one man in particular. I found in his gaze a longing – a desire for confirmation – that what we were singing is true: God is in this place.
Using only my eyes, from across the aisle, I tried to give him my reassurance of God’s presence: “I see what you see. I see it, too!”
We can do no less, it seems to me. We who are blessed to know God, to know Love – we who’ve known it all our lives – are called to become prodigal in sharing this gift.
And when we take up the call, all bets are off. Jesus can then work in us to bear fruit – fruit that will last.
Let us pause now…to recall that we are in the presence of the Holy & Merciful One.
IHS
With Us Still 