Tell the World for me- From: Raju Gurbaxani

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Sat, 28 May 2005 06:19:09 +0100 (BST)Raju Gurbaxani

<raju....Tell the World for mesaibabanews,

Tell the World for Me "We love, because God first loved us."

Some 14 years ago, I stood watching my university students file into the

classroom for our opening session in the theology of faith. That was the day I

first saw Tommy. He was combing his hair, which hung six inches below his

shoulders. My quick judgment wrote him off as strange -- very strange. Tommy

turned out to be my biggest challenge. He constantly objected to, or smirked at

the possibility of an unconditionally loving God. When he turned in his final

exam at the end of the course, he asked in a slightly cynical tone, "Do you

think I'll ever find God?No," I said emphatically. "Oh," he responded. "I

thought that was the product you were pushing." I let him get five steps from

the door and then called

out. "I don't think you'll ever find him, but I am certain he will find you."

Tommy shrugged and left. I felt slightly disappointed that he had missed my

clever line. Later I heard that Tommy had graduated, and I was grateful for

that. Then came a sad report: Tommy had terminal cancer. Before I could search

him out, he came to me. When he walked into my office, his body was badly

wasted, and his long hair had fallen out because of the chemotherapy. But, his

eyes were bright and his voice, for the first time, was firm. "Tommy! I've

thought about you so often. I heard you were very sick," I blurted out. "Oh,

yes, very sick. I have cancer. It's a matter of weeks.Can you talk about

it?Sure. What would you like to know?What's it like to be only 24 and

know that

you're dying?It could be worse," he told me, "like being 50 and thinking that

drinking booze, seducing women and making money are the real 'biggies' in life."

Then, he told me why he had come. "It was something you said to me on the last

day of class. I asked if you thought I would ever find God and you said no,

which surprised me. Then you said, 'But, he will find you.' I thought about

that a lot, even though my search for God was hardly intense at that time."

"But, when the doctors removed a lump from my body and told me that it was

malignant, I got serious about locating God. And when the malignancy spread

into my vital organs, I really began banging against the bronze doors of

heaven. But, nothing happened. Well, one day I woke up, and instead of my

desperate attempts to get some kind of message, I just quit. I decided I didn't

really care about God, an afterlife, or

anything like that.I decided to spend what time I had left doing something

more important. I thought about you and something else you had said: 'The

essential sadness is to go through life without loving. But, it would be almost

equally sad to leave this world without ever telling those you loved that you

loved them.' So, I began with the hardest one...my Dad." Tommy's father had

been reading the newspaper when his son approached him. "Dad, I would like to

talk with you.Well, talk.I mean, it's really important." The newspaper

came down three slow inches. "What is it?Dad, I love you. I just wanted you

to know that." Tommy smiled at me as he recounted the

moment. "The newspaper fluttered to the floor. Then, my father did two things I

couldn't remember him doing before. He cried and he hugged me. And then, we

talked all night, even though he had to go to work the next morning.It was

easier with my mother and little brother," Tommy continued."They cried with me,

and we hugged one another, and shared the thing we had been keeping secret for

so many years. I was only sorry that I had waited so long. Here I was, in the

shadow of death, and I was just beginning to open up to all the people I had

actually been close to.Then one day, I turned around and God was there. He

didn't come to me when I pleaded with him. Apparently he does things in his own

way and at his own hour. The important thing is that you were right. He found me

even after I stopped looking for him.Tommy," I practically

gasped, "I think you are saying something much more universal than you realize.

You are saying that the surest way to find God is not by making him a private

possession or an instant consolation in time of need, but rather by opening to

love.""Tommy," I added, "could I ask you a favor? Would you come to my

theology-of-faith course and tell my students what you just told me?" Though we

scheduled a date, he never made it. Of course, his life was not really ended by

his death, only changed. He made the great step from faith into vision. He

found a life far more beautiful than the eye of humanity has ever seen, or the

mind ever imagined. Before he died, we talked one last time. "I'm not going to

make it to your class," he said. "I know, Tommy.Will you tell them for me?

Will you . . . tell the whole world

for me?I will, Tommy. I'll tell them."

by: John Powell

 

 

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