A LESSON IN LIVING
His name was Morrie Schwartz. Chances are that you’ve never heard of him. But in 1994 and 1995 he captured the public eye and wrenched at the hearts of millions of people across the United States.
Morrie Schwartz was dying. In the summer of 1994 he was diagnosed with ALS, more commonly known as Lou Gerrig’s disease. Prior to the disease he had been a dancer, but to complicate matters further he was diagnosed as a diabetic and his dancing came to an end.
In the fall of 1994 Morrie Schwartz walked into the classroom of a small Massachuessett’s college where he had spent 35 years of his life teaching sociology and anthropology. This was to be his last semester of teaching. His opening words were chosen well and delivered in a way that left his students silent. “I am dying. I may not be here for the end of this class and the university has no one to replace me. So if you are here because this class is a requirement or you need the credit hours you may want to go find a different class.” Amazingly no one chose to opt out.
Six weeks into the course Morrie was beginning to walk with a cane since the disease was ravaging his legs. About this time someone wrote to Tom Brokah about this professor. And so came the first of three interviews on Nightline. The interviews were not about the disease. Instead they were about the optimism this man had facing death. In fact, the first interview was called “A Lesson In Dying.”
Immediately following this interview a student who had at one time been close to Morrie contacted him. The two had not spoken in sixteen years. But from this point until his death, the teacher and student met every Tuesday.
Morrie’s health continued to deteriorate. He went from a cane to a walker and then to a wheelchair. When he could no longer sit upright on his own he moved to an easy chair in his study and finally into the bed where he would spend his last days. Yet throughout all of this he kept a happy face. And most importantly he taught the student a lesson in living well.
I’d like to share some of those lessons with you this morning. Ways of living well. We’ll call it “A Lesson In Living.”
The first thing I want you to know about living well is this. Whatever life brings you, let it be.
That’s a tough statement to make. Let it be.
We often hear people telling “Oh it’s just God’s will.” And yet when the sorrows of life come we have a hard time believing that. We ask questions like “Why is God doing this to me?” and “Does God hate me?”
Morrie, however, had a different outlook. He believed that his disease was supposed to occur. And I’m forced to wonder how anyone would believe such a thing. Are diseases truly supposed to happen? Are the trials we face just supposed to happen? Morrie believed that his disease was something that had a purpose. He couldn’t change it. He couldn’t control it. What he could do was realize that he was going to die from the disease and live his life as it was given to him. He knew there was no known treatment for Lou Gerrig’s disease. There still isn’t a cure. So he decided that he would live the life he had been given.
We can see this occur in scripture as well. In the book of Luke, the writer tells the story of the birth of Jesus. It is here Luke tells the story that so many of us know at Christmas time. Mary is told of the coming of Jesus. She’s told that she will bear a child. Imagine the horror. She’s a virgin. She’s never slept with a man.
Then it happens. In Luke 1:38 she says this. “The Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be according to your word.”
Let it be! How can she be thinking like that?
I think about what I know about that time period and I know that girls were between 12 and 14 usually when they got married and began having children. My own daughter is 10. Even at the farther 14 isn’t that far away and yet I see how young she is. Through that I can imagine Mary’s fears. She wasn’t married. What were the people around her going to say? Worse still, what was Joseph going to say? He could have her killed. It happened then. An unmarried, pregnant woman could be stoned to death. There would be ridicule. There would be the reputation that followed her for the rest of her life. The whispers of “You know what she did…” always behind her back. And yet this young girl instead says, “Let it be.”
What an unbelievable statement. Let it be. But we don’t always have a choice. God does things that we don’t always understand. We can fight for the control we want to have. Or, like Mary, we can let God have control and know that it is in his hands.
Even Jesus in his last days had to let God’s will occur. We don’t think about it that way sometimes. We know that he came to give his life for us. And yet in the garden he still had to come to terms with God’s will.
Over in the book of Luke in chapter 22 we can read about Jesus submitting to the father’s will. In verses 41 and 42 it says this, “And He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if it is You will, take this cup away from me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.”
It a hard concept to grasp. I know it’s one I will be struggling with. Because I want control. But I’ve got to remember to let it be.
The second lesson about living that we can learn from Morrie is this. The way to life long love is to love everyone.
We know as Christians that the Bible commands us to love each other. We see it over and over again throughout scripture.
First John 4:7 says, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.”
We’re supposed to love each other. Not just when we feel like it either. That “let us love one another” in there isn’t an option. In fact, in the original Greek it’s a command. LOVE ONE ANOTHER. All the time. not just when we feel like it. Not when things are going our way. All the time.
But not only are we told be loving to other believers. We’re told to love our enemies. Boy, there’s a tough thing to do. I’ve met some people that seem rather unlovable. You know the kind I’m talking about. They’ve got that rough exterior and the gruff attitude that grates on one’s skin. More so there are some people out there that I don’t like very much. I’m supposed to love them too.
In fact, Luke 6:27 says, “But I say to you who hear; Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.”
I was thinking one of the best ways I can love my enemy is to pray for them. And maybe praying for them is a bad example. I could say things like I’ve read David wrote in the Psalms, “God get those people.” But that’s not what is meant by loving. Then I’m still just showing my anger. A better way might be to ask God to change my view. Maybe I need to learn a better way to deal with those people. But I still need to be praying for their well-being and their spiritual needs.
With love came Morrie’s third point. Take care of those around you in any way you can.
We see over and over again in scripture that we are to be serving others. Many of us think this refers to our family and to our church. We often don’t think about those people who are not related to us in one form or another. We forget about those that are less fortunate than we are.
I realized this only this past week. Storm and I were in a local store. A local radio station was playing in the background. As I listened they were talking about families in need this Christmas season. One family wanted only a ham for Christmas dinner. Another each one of the children asked for boots to keep their feet warm through the winter. In another family the wife asked for a few more pots and pans so that she could cook dinner and the husband asked for a new set of wrenches, since mechanics was how he supported his family and his set was missing pieces. All the while I had been worrying about how I could come up with more money to buy my wife a special present. The only person I was serving in this case was myself. I had failed to see beyond what I wanted to the needs of others.
Over in the book of Matthew 25, there’s a passage about service that I love. It begins in verse 34 and it says this, “Then the king will say to those on His right hand, “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in Prison and you came to me.” Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, “Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give you drink? When sis we see You a stranger and take you in, or naked and clothe you? Or when did we see you sick, or in prison, and come to You?” And the King will answer and say to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it for one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to me.”
The service doesn’t have to be anything difficult. It can be a simple thing. Picking up the phone and calling someone, visiting a friend in the nursing home or hospital, even just taking a batch of cookies to someone you appreciate.
More importantly, when we serve others people can see God through us. They see the lifestyle we live and they know that there is something different about us. They see Jesus moving. And more often than not it is through the simple things we do.
I heard a story recently about a simple act of service. There was a youth minister from a church in Washington state. Once a month, on a Sunday evening, the youth of the church took charge of the service. They led the music, said prayers, they even did a short devotional for the congregation.
The youth minister would sit in the back and watch, just observing his students. Next to him sat an old man confined to a wheelchair. At the end of every service the old man would reach for his hand. Together the two would sit hand in hand while the older man prayed and cried for these young people.
After a time, the older man was admitted to the hospital as his life came to an end. The youth minister went to see him one last time before he died. The two sat together holding hands. No words were passed. None needed to be.
As the youth worker was leaving he encountered a young woman going into the older man’s room. She stopped him for just a moment.
“I’m so glad you came,” she said. “He talks about you all the time.”
The youth minister was puzzled. He had no idea who this young lady was.
She explained that she was the elderly man’s grand-daughter. “I know who you are,” she said. “You’re Jesus.”
Despite the fact that the elderly man knew he wasn’t, the youth minister was touched by that statement.
Holding hands? A simple act. It had taken nothing for him to hold the older man’s hand. But it still touched a life.
We have the same capability through the simple things we do just by taking care of those around us in anyway that we can.
During an interview with Ted Koppel, Morrie was asked why he had the outlook on death that he held. He answered, “Most people never know when they’re going to die. I have a chance to really live.”
For the last couple of years the men of this church and I have traveled down the road of find out how we can live. We studied the book by John Eldridge called Wild At Heart. Through it we learned some important lessons about what our purpose in life is.
One of the most important lessons was, live life to the fullest.
Now for those who haven’t been part of our study, I want you to understand something. We’re not encouraging dangerous activity. We’re teaching men to be content in the life they have while being everything God has called them to be.
Winston Churchill once said, “Do not be what the world wants you to be. Find the thing that makes you come alive and go do that thing.”
We’re meant to live life to the fullest for God’s purpose.
Paul talks about it over in 1 Corinthians 9:24 – 25 (Message). “You’ve all been to the stadium and seen the athletes race. Everyone runs, but only one wins. Run to win. All good athletes train hard. They do it for a gold medal that tarnishes and fades. You’re after one that’s gold eternally.”
We’re supposed to push to the goal. We’re supposed to win the race. We’re supposed to live life to the fullest. We’re bound for eternal gold.
Paul in his last days knew that he had achieved that goal. I’ve preached on this next passage before. It’s one of my favorites in the Bible despite it being such a sad moment in his life. It’s found over in 2 Timothy 4:7 – 8. “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me a crown of righteouness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved His appearing.”
Paul’s life is about to end. He knows his time of death is near. In an earlier verse he even says, “The headsman’s sword awaits.” Paul knows he’s going to be executed and yet in those final days he realizes he has lived his life to the fullest. He’s won the race.
We all need to be living like that. We all need to know that when life comes to an end we have done exactly what God called us to do. We have lived our lives to the fullest.
There is one last point Morrie had to share. I’d like to share that secret of life with you.
The ultimate key to life is forgiveness.
Let me repeat that for you. The ULTIMATE key to life is FORGIVENESS.
You see, that final student of Morrie’s had been a true friend. But somewhere along the way the young man had strayed down a different path. He’d forgotten about Morrie. The two hadn’t even spoken in sixteen years.
Sixteen years is a long time not to talk to someone. And yet when the two friends came together again the young man never asked for forgiveness. It was just given to him. Morrie never said the words, “I forgive you.” Instead he accepted this student with open arms.
We’ve got a savior like that. And thank God we do.
You see, we’ve all wandered.
I think back on my personal life. I grew up in a Christian home. I knew who Jesus was at an early age. But then as a young adult I strayed away. I had more important things to do than spend time with God. God was forgotten along the pathway I chose to lead. Then in a dark moment, I returned. God was where I’d left him. He hadn’t changed.
There were open arms waiting for me. God accepted me despite my own abandoning of him. He wrapped arms of forgiveness about me and called me his.
Maybe you know the pain of walking away. Maybe you’re in need of forgiveness. I don’t know what you walked in here with today. It really doesn’t matter. God is big enough to forgive anything and for any length of time.
Sixteen years is nothing to him.
You see, Morrie knew some true lessons in living. He wasn’t teaching his student how to die well. He was teaching that student how to truly live.
You want to live?
Simple ways. Let it be. Love everyone. Take care of everyone. Live life to the fullest. And above all, the ultimate key to life is forgiveness.
