I am not alone when I mention that I love the show “This is Us.” There are too many good qualities to list. But, my favorite thing is that they scoot around in time, giving us insight into the depth of each character. It satisfies a curiosity that I have always held about how our actions affect our life and the lives of others.
Many times, I will sit with my husband and ask what he was doing during a particular time in his life. Our hometowns were exactly fourteen miles apart. I wonder if we ever ran into one another. What were our impressions of each other? I dream about learning ‘the rest of the story’ as the Paul Harvey Show used to tell. If I were to watch the reels of each of our childhoods would I have a more understanding and compassionate heart?
What if I could see my children when they were not with me and had the courage to watch them during the most difficult times of their lives…and could observe myself at those same moments in time, what would I find myself doing?
In my son’s active addiction, when I knew in my heart that I could not help him, I decided to help others. I did this to keep myself busy enough to stay out of his and God’s business and I had the hope that those around him would reach out to him if he wanted their help.
Twelve-step programs are great places to get the ‘God’s-eye view’ of things. We go around the room sharing our experience,hope and strength. Often, they will share how a small act or thought changed their course in life. Perhaps it is really the Holy Spirit at work.
It makes me think about the sponsor/sponsees relationship. A sponsor is defined as ‘a person taking official responsibility for the actions of another.’ That seems like an awfully big job–one that is too big for any one individual. The sponsor will take all of the nuggets of life-saving wisdom given to him by all of the other souls who came before him and hand them down to their sponsee. There has to be another power at work. If only we could see those other lives that have given influence to ours…
I thought about this as I read Mark Goodson’s post about the loss of his sponsor. His post painted a clear picture of the depth of influence that love has over each one of us. His story moves us forward in time showing how he is taking what he’s been given and passing it along with such urgency.
In ways we are lucky in these programs. We invite others into our scary places to hold our hands and help us walk through. Then, we reach out to grab the hand of another. Each hand… each heart is another link that leads us to feel our connectedness.
If only we could see the whole picture. Would we then see the face of God? Maybe that is what I am really looking for. What are your thoughts?