← Speeches & Workshops

Festival of Trees Volunteers

December, 2001

I’m not a good church-goer. I go .. I go all the time. In fact, I never miss, but I’m not a good churchgoer. I sit there and mentally argue with the service.

Last Sunday: I was in the front row.. within three feet of me were 1) a lady suffering terribly from Kroan’s disease. To even be there that day was torture for her. 2) a man two seats behind me who was entering St. John’s yesterday for a series of chemo treatments and has been given little hope by his doctors. 3) Far behind me in the back row because of his crutches, sat a young man who survived a car wreck that killed a friend of his two weeks ago. 4) A mother with very little income whose very bright young son is now looking for a place they could afford for college. I sit and look at her in church.. her eyes are always on her son. I know what she’s praying. It’s “Lord, how can I ever afford to send him?”

From the pulpit we discussed the high school basketball team, the fact that the Yankees didn’t win the pennant, the wonderful things the United Methodist Church does around the world, what it will take to get your own personal poinsettia on the altar during Advent, when the greens will be hung, and when the children would be practicing for the Christmas program.

I wanted to scream.

When it came time for prayer requests, the people I spoke of were mentioned in low and mournful tones. We dutifully bowed our heads to pray then sang a slow, mournful song to indicate how very little hope we had for miracles.

I’m not a good churchgoer. I get pissed. Here in the season of miracles we treat God like a last resort and hope the ballteam and the poinsettias lifts our spirits.

Let me tell you about real miracles…

Let me tell you about Kenny… (Chicken Soup.. email) This is a season for miracles… a season to not only hope for miracles, but to expect them.

A phrase we’ve heard a hundred times in the last six weeks.. “senseless tragedy”

But if we believe in a world ruled by God, what the heck does senseless tragedy mean? Biblical headlines: “The best man on earth, Job struck by senseless tragedy.” “Thorn found in Paul’s side! Senseless Tragedy!” “Naked couple expelled form Garden Paradise. Apple leads to senseless tragedy!” “33 year old innocent man crucified. Senseless Tragedy.”

Let me tell you about miracles…and senseless tragedgy. Craig..Richard..Lucerne..Sept 11 .. job

It’s a season for miracles… from senseless tragedy.

Daniel..Zebco 22

Three years ago My mother…one of those elective heart surgeries… 97% chance of success… Mom helped fill out the other 3%. Died in St. Johns . In intensive care while her family sat just ten yards away in a very sterile waiting room. I wrote a play in the following months.. called “A Room Full of Strangers,” about the American way of dying.

Good friend..Dr. Thomas Bunting..Pike County.. elderly population… basically spent the last ten years of his practice telling families that their loved ones had died in the next room. He told me that the main reason he retired and moved to New Mexico was “America is a great place to live. But when it comes to dying, we have a lot to learn.”

My co-director and very good friend sat with his mother earlier this year in J’ville. She told her son, Chuck, I need a miracle. “Mom, we’re praying for your healing.” “Oh no..not that. I’m anxious to get it over. But I need to finish my Easter baskets.” She was under hospice care wasn’t expected to make it through the weekend. Her final goal..Easter baskets for each of her 12 grandchildren. She finished the last one on the morning of her death. She died in a room full of people who love her…her Easter baskets were finished.

• • Christmas is indeed a time for miracles but God depends upon us to make them happen. That is your purpose here tonight, isn’t it? Woodhaven Hospice is an organization created to serve those who have suffered what some might consider Senseless Tragedy. And how do you serve? By making miracles happen in the lives of those you serve.

There were miracles in our church Sunday.. --Two eighth-grade boys who had never been to church before.. and the smile on the face of their friend who brought them. 2 boys who’ve been pretty much a general irritation to me for the last two years.. 3 miracles, 2 in the boys and 1 in my heart.

The wife of the man going in for chemo..in tears and being hugged by a lady who’s been suffering from depression… a miracle was occuring. Today in my speech class..the sister of the boy on crutches pleaded with tears in her eyes… pleaded for her classmates to wear their seatbelts. I even thought about ordering a poinsettia.

The miracle of Christmas lies within you. Not a one of you here tonight will escape the opportunity to make a miracle happen.

At 5 o’clock tonight I was looking over this speech. Got an email from friend asking for prayer for my neighbor. Tomorrow: 3 year old Down’s Syndrome boy leaves for first day of school. Her husband goes in for a heart cath this Thursday. Her son’s girl friend totalled her car yesterday. Plus she has to play for Triopia’s Christmas program tonight and she has a cold. I called her just to calm her down. While we were on the phone her Down’s son flushed the phone book down the toilet. Before she called up she said, “Thanks for calling. It was a miracle.”

Thanks for joining with Hospice …. Thanks for helping to make miracles. PAGE

PAGE 3