More Michael

 Going Where You Cannot See

In yesterday’s post, I told the story of Michael, the young man who died from misdiagnosed cancer.  I feel certain that he would want me to continue to pass along stories that shout to be told again and again from his life.  

He told me that he had a recurring dream of being adrift in a boat without oars. He would always wake up crying.  Then came a startling turning point. In the dream, he heard a voice say, “stick out your hands the oars.”  Of course, there were no oars.  But he put out his hands nevertheless—and oars appeared in his hands.   He could then make it to the other side of the shore.

 

 Stick your hands out for oars when you can’t see them?  So he puts out his hands and the oars appear out of nowhere?  What does this mean?  For Michael, the message for him was to “take hold” of “gifts beyond the naked eye.”  Or, perhaps…you need to reach out beyond your senses, the familiar, and the logic of this world.  Everyone knows that seeing is believing, right?  This is a story of acting beyond what you can see, or intuit—and taking hold of it.  

Okay, how about the example of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade? Harrison Ford has to cross a deep ravine where no bridge appears to the eye.  He just steps out, and as he does, the bridge appears. That’s fine for the movies, but Michael’s story is one that leaves us with the risk of life.  Life is to be found wherever we reach out, step out, by believing it is founded by something which upholds us beyond human senses and logic.

What choices must we make where we have to step out and take the risk of life?  Think it over.  Do we ever have a 100% guarantee of the way ahead and the future?  Michael would say that he was only told to reach out.  He had to take it from there—and start rowing!