The Last Lecture

Somewhere I was not aware of Randy Pausch and what he had said in his Last Lecture. I recently got an email from a bookstore that told about the book that he had co-authored. The title of the book was "The Last Lecture" written by Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow. I went out and bought the book and finished it within 3 hours amidst laughter and tears. To say that I was inspired by what Randy had to say would be understating my feelings and thoughts. For those who may not know Randy is facing a fight with cancer. I will not go in depth about that as he and his wife have not wanted too much to be known to their children right now. Read the book or listen to the lecture at www.TheLastLecture.com.
What I found inspiring was his attitude about living your life. Last night at our communion service I shared some of what he had to say. Some of his ideas was to really achieve your childhood dreams and enable the dreams of others. He refuses to obsess about his illness and rather to appreciate the life we have and the time that we have for we never know when that changes. I was reminded of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew who asked the rhetorical question, how much time can you gain by worrying? We can complain and as Randy stated as others have also, if we would put a tenth of the energy we put into complaining to working toward a solution what a better world that would be. At the same time, it is ok to be realistic about what is but not to the point of giving up or complaining about it. Rather would it not be better to take what is and accepting that move on in life and not quit living or loving. Where would we be if Jesus knowing what was going to happen to him would have given up and told the disciples that they were on their own.
Randy talks about head fakes that he had learned from his middle school football coach. He uses that in his teaching others by telling stories that teach something while the listener is focused on the story. Much like the parables Jesus used to teach. Following Easter, our church has been focusing on what it means to fully accept the sacrifice of Christ and how we in faith are called to live. The head fake is that using stories we are calling people to live faithfully, not giving up, not complaining, but taking the abundance of God's grace and sharing that. This week we will look at 1Peter 1:17-23. Read what Peter has to say and compare it to what Randy has to say and dare I say look at what the world has to say about faith, hope, life and love. I strongly recommend reading the Last Lecture and also read the scriptures especially Matthew. Then we can look at what is it that I place my faith and hope in especially during difficult times.