Right after Morrie Swartz was diagnosed with ALS (Lou
Gehrig’s disease), he went through the mental gymnastics of trying to make
sense of it all. He entertained all of the normal, swirling questions regarding
family, finances, future, etc. But Mitch Albom records one significant thought
that Morrie did not anticipate.
Mitch
writes, “My old professor was stunned by
the normalcy of the day around him. Shouldn’t the world stop? Don’t they know
what has happened to me?”
Tragic
news has a way of stopping our world.
When some unbidden misfortune breaks and shatters our daily routine, it
is odd to see others going on as if nothing has happened. I remember feeling
this exact thing when my own father died.
The
world did not stop. It seemed sort of “irreverent” to me that the world did not
stop to acknowledge my loss. This is what happened to Morrie.
Stunned
by the normalcy of the day around him…this reminds us of several things so
deeply vital and important to our daily Christian life.
First,
our own “bad news” (whatever form it may take) will not have the same effect on
others. Even though we expect others to understand, if they have not
experienced the same thing, they cannot understand.
Second,
news of terminal illness or experiences of death redefine what is normal for
us. We are thrust into a new world not of our own making. This lack of control
can be responsible for fear spinning out of control. It is at this point that a
person is looking for anything to hold onto. The Christian can lend a listening
ear and a shoulder to cry on when someone is having to adjust to the news of a
new normal.
Third,
our challenge every day is to try to know and understand what has happened to
other people when devastating news is received. Depending on what stage of the
process we interact with someone, different reactions will be strong and
“normal.” Numbness, disbelief, anger, bargaining with God, anguish, withdrawal,
etc. are all various symptoms of attempting to cope with the unthinkable.
Morrie
did a remarkable thing. He did not want to see his diagnosis of death render
him “useless.” Instead, he offered his own life as a bridge to death for others
to join him on the journey.Let us all,
with hearts of Christian compassion, be ready to be used by God when someone’s
personal tragedy puts them in a position to be “stunned by the normalcy of the
day.”
In Christian love, Curtis
