Second Sunday after the Epiphany (Isaiah 49:1-7)  1/19/2014

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I recently watched a very powerful HBO documentary about a young boy, who was actually quite an old man. The documentary was about Sam Berns, a young boy with a very rare disorder called Progeria. The disorder is a rare disease that involves a specific protein that creates a genetic disruption and causes the body to age very rapidly…this young boy of 13 had the body of an 80 year man. The young boy stated quite firmly, however, that the documentary was about his life, not about the disease. But without the disease, there would have been no documentary; without witnessing the incredible challenges of his life, there would have been no obvious contrast for us to see Sam’s incredible strength and hope. As the story unfolds throughout the documentary, the viewer becomes familiar with Sam and his parents (both medical doctors, helping in their own ways to find solutions to Sam’s disease) and you become increasingly aware of the life and character of Sam and his parents; and eventually the disease is merely the context of the story, not the story itself. No, the story itself is a story of courageous hope, courageous dreams, courageous actions that are taken with an abiding faith and confidence that those actions will make a difference. The courageous actions of Sam and his parents create the story, not the disease. Nowhere in the documentary is this fact better illustrated than in the opening few seconds, just as the story begins. We discover a young 13 year old boy, who looks like a man maybe 6 or 7 times that old, intently working on creating something new. He is surrounded by LEGO blocks, LEGO people and entire LEGO creations spread across a very large table. And as he continues to work on his newest creation he says, “When I’m building LEGOs I feel like I can create my own world…” Sam not only created his own world on that large table, Sam and his parents faithfully created a difference in the world at large – in their community and across the globe. His dreams were not simply left on that big table, Sam’s dreams were coming to life because of his courageous faith and his confidence that his actions could make a difference. Continue reading →