700 Sundays on a Monday night

Tonight I was supposed to head into NYC to see a storytelling event.  I had to do an errand for my grandparents and wound up missing my train.  Instead I was surprised to see on TV a one man Broadway show of Billy Crystal's life call 700 Sundays. It is a deeply moving tale of Crystal's life played out in front of a facade of his chidlhood home.  He especially focuses on his relationship with his father who died very suddenly when Billy was 15.  He approximates in the play that he had about 700 Sundays with his father.

And the most touching part of the play for me were two scenes that mirror each other in the show, both taking place in heaven with Billy talking to God.  The first conversation is right after Crystal's father died when he's angry and feels selfish and that God made his life unfair.  God tells him that those are the cards he was dealt which makes Crystal quip, "Are you God or a blackjack dealer?"

At the last moments of the play, after the death of his mother, Billy speaks with God again and mimes a handful of cards that he's looking at. He starts by talking about the bad cards, the death of his father, his short height, but then quickly moves on to say all the great cards he was dealt: being close with his mother, having a beautiful wife and two daughters, getting to have the career he's always wanted.

It was a beautiful reflection on how we all are presented with certain circumstances of life, the "cards we're dealt" but we are given so many more good cards than bad.  God gives us gifts in everything, even the worst of situations, the heaviest of loses, or the deepest of depressions can yield fruit that following our own will never could.

We are privledged to say that God is our Father and He gives us not just 700 Sundays but every day.  Our life is an opportunity to love more truthfully each day and God gives us the necessary grace to grow in love.  Each struggle we have, each failure and loss and heartache all lead us down a path we would never have without it.

When I compare my life to others I feel very blessed and that God has truly guided me safely so far.  I have had some troubling experiences but not the devestating ones I have heard wiser people speak of and the pain that accompanies age.  I know that I too will have these seemingly detrimental agonies but God is leading me tonight to the conclusion that they are important and for a purpose.

I wish I had something funny to say, I actually have been wishing I had something funny to say all day!  But tonight I am just utterly grateful for God's gifts to me and I hope that He guides each of us to use our talents as well as our pains and wounds to bring us more fully into His life.

God love you!

~onecatholicguy