Words From The Warden

I will certainly be glad when the midterm elections are over. The advertisements manage to irritate and entertain me at the same time.

Many candidates ask for our votes by insisting that they are uniquely qualified to fix every problem created by previous administrations. Yet those same candidates also work hard to portray themselves as ordinary people facing the same everyday struggles as everyone else. Perhaps they are Superman and Clark Kent at the very same time.

Even more troubling, some candidates promise to solve my problems by making life more difficult for a fellow citizen. Gee whiz—following all these contradictions requires some exhausting mental gymnastics.

This week, I spent time with some regular people whose stories lifted me. One of them was Joy, for whom I prepared a $9,000 estimate to repaint nearly the entire interior of her home.

As we talked, Joy told me about a difficult divorce and the limited help she received from her ex-husband. She was not angry, just resigned. At the time of the divorce, she and her children were living in an apartment. Her high-school-aged daughter told her that she wanted to live in a house.

Joy, a public-school teacher who works with elementary-aged children with special needs, set out to make that wish come true. Along with teaching full time, she worked twelve-hour night shifts at Amazon on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. After finding a home, she realized she still needed more money, so she started a cleaning service and woke up at three in the morning on other days to work. Throughout it all, she prayed without ceasing, asking God for the strength to buy a home for herself and her children.
Joy has now lived in that home for a little more than five years. After buying it, she fulfilled two more dreams: earning her master’s degree and becoming a certified foster parent. She told me that she had dreamed of fostering children for as long as she could remember.

As Joy described her family, one of her elementary-aged children listened nearby. Joy explained that she had three children with her ex-husband and had adopted two more, but then she hesitated while trying to count everyone. The little girl quickly corrected her: “Seven—you have seven kids!”

To me, Joy’s story was nothing short of amazing.

I also spent some time with our old St. Luke’s friend Aaron. We seldom see each other but remain as Facebook friends. We are painting their new home near German Village. Aaron is a really good sportswriter. He has loved journalism since he was a high schooler. He covered sports for his hometown newspaper and later was a top journalist for the Dispatch. For the past several years he has covered the Columbus Blue Jackets. His podcasts and national stories reach every corner of the country. Four or five years ago he learned that his kidneys no longer functioned and he began the search for a kidney donor. A little over three years ago a young lady in the Jackets front office sought to be tested and found that she was a match. She donated one kidney to him. Of course, his life forever changed and they are both inextricably entwined in one another’s’ lives. Aaron and his wife and daughter are grateful beyond words. And there is a loving sense of humor that permeates the relationship between he and the donor. The other day he asked for a pen, and she handed him one and said, “Geez, do I have to give you everything?” Amazing is all I can say!

During the 1980s I was drawn to an American author by the name of Studs Terkel. He wrote about his interviews with all types of people. He talked with them about working and faith and their thoughts on race. He listened to thousands of people and what came out of his interviews was how regular people are so amazing. What he wrote about was the fact that ordinary people constantly do amazing things.

Few of us will be big shots. Most of us will never be filthy rich. It is unlikely that any of us will have great fame. But each of us can be grateful for what we have and grateful for our opportunities to help others. Some of us might joke that God loves regular people because He made so many of us. And He gives us the opportunity to live our lives with an amazing richness.

Throughout the Bible, God regularly uses ordinary people and routine tasks to do extraordinary things.

Thank you, God, for my amazing, regular life!

Peace,

Henry Zaborniak, Senior Warden