By John Cooper
Guest column
We often learn life’s most important lessons only when we desperately need them. That’s unfortunate for David. His wife died of cancer a while back. Now, at 41, he is raising their two children alone.
Sitting in the Scott County Jail on a third felony drug possession charge, he faces the possibility of prison, a sentence that would leave his children without their father.
In last Sunday’s first reading from first Kings, the prophet Elijah encountered God, but it’s the way he discovered God that has a lesson for inmate David and all of us. Elijah was convinced God would come in big events like heavy winds or earthquakes. Elijah was convinced he’d feel the presence of God in a scorching fire. But it was through a “tiny whispering sound” that Elijah encountered the living God. Maybe David isn’t encountering God in the drama of drug use and incarceration as much as he is in the quiet voices of his children who still need their father.
One of my favorite authors is Australian writer and illustrator Andrew Matthews. His book “Follow Your Heart” found me in 1999 while I was driving my son to a doctor’s appointment. I still use it in my McAnthony Window classes and jail ministry, and I often give it as a graduation gift.
In it, Matthews recalls that when he was 10 years old, his “most prized possession” was his football. He says, “I ate with it, slept with it, and polished it weekly.” While playing in the street one day, he lost his precious football. It was then that he saw a woman walking down the street with a large bulge under her blouse. He asked her, “What do you think you’re doing with my football stuck up your shirt?” She didn’t have it, but in that moment he learned where babies come from, and “what someone looks like when she is nine months pregnant.” Because we learn gradually, God patiently speaks to us in everyday situations, even when we are 10 years old.
Does that mean we should sit back and relax, knowing that God will eventually get through? No. It means that we have to become more aware throughout each day. A healthy practice is to stop and do what the Church calls an “Examination of Conscience,” checking what’s going on in our lives, especially at noon and at night. This is actively listening to God, incrementally, before our lives feel like a confusing mess.
It all begins with simply observing. God told Elijah to go outside the cave and observe. He became aware of wind, earthquakes, fire, and finally a tiny whisper. God invites us to observe from the moment we wake up. Metaphorically, we can think of the wind blowing in our lives as someone getting upset with something we’ve said. The difficult exchanges we have with people can feel like earthquakes in the middle of our day. We can feel burnt by the fires of gossip. In all these things and more, God is talking to us. Yet, God’s whisper to Elijah is a welcome reminder that we don’t have to have storms for God to communicate.
David, the inmate at the jail, said that it’s his addiction that is jeopardizing his being able to care for his children, especially if he goes to prison. He was so attentive and sincere last Sunday in his participation in our session. He was doing what Elijah did; he was making himself available to God. That’s the first step. Now David must do what Elijah did: leave the cave, accept God’s mission, and become the father his children need. God sent Elijah back into the world with a new sense of purpose. Let’s pray for the sake of David’s children that he responds to God in the same way as Elijah.
Our caves might not be addiction, but they could be poor relationships, anger, grief, pride, or… In any case, God is calling us out of them. Let’s listen.
(John Cooper is the pastoral associate and business manager at St. Anthony Parish in Davenport.)
