Andrew has been a Catch 365 advocate since Day #4, when we played catch in bright sunshine and below freezing temperatures. A couple months later, on Day #92, we played catch in the fog with his son Lucas. Day #184 feels like 101 degrees outside. My body breaks into a sweat just thinking about going outside. Day #184 is also Andrew’s 33rd birthday. Dinner menu includes chicken, venison, and apple pie. Lucas didn’t join us because of an offer to tour Wonders of Wildlife. I can’t say I blame him.
“So, I’m moving to KC,” he said as he greeted me.
On August 1, Andrew and his family are moving to KC so he can begin seminary.
“Going through what I’ve been through, leukemia and treatment, I feel I have a unique perspective about what really matters, a more appropriate perspective. I reached a point during treatment when I was quite helpless, I had to trust and rely on God in a new way.”
Andrew will be working toward a degree in interdisciplinary studies, focusing on both teaching and counseling.
“I didn’t want to grow old and look back at my life wishing I’d done a better job of doing the good work God’s got planned for me. I knew now was the time to go all in.”
Of course, this kind of risky decision comes with all the what-if questions and middle-of-the-night doubts. But Andrew shared his story with a smile and full of great hope. As Soren Kierkegaard once said, “Without risk, faith is an impossibility.”
I remember when Jamie and I moved to Texas for me to begin seminary. We had no jobs and barely a month’s expenses in savings. We had been evicted from our apartment through no fault of our own and moved in the then-second hottest summer in recorded history. Though I’m still paying toward that degree, the experiences we had as a couple have prepared us well for a life of adventure and faith, taking risks to make new friends and follow the joyful and serendipitous whispers of God’s Spirit.
I think playing catch every day is the culmination of my deep joy and theology, that love and hope and kindness are contagious and best spread when having fun together.
Thanks be to God for baseball!
