Ray Lewis vs Rev. Alden

Rev. Alden, pastor of the Walnut Grove Community church and school

I loved Little House on the Prairie.  Pa Ingalls was so wise, dispensing love and direction from his little wooden home on the prairies of Minnesota.  Little Half-pint and her sister Mary finishing their chores and then running down the dirt road to the church building which doubled as the school during the week.  The snooty Nellie Oleson, resplendent in all her big bowed glory, lying and scheming in every episode.  Doc Baker climbing into his wagon in the dark, setting out to yet another frontier home struck with some sudden malady....  And on Sunday, everyone in the community would gather in the church, sing hymns and then sit and listen as the wise and compassionate Rev. Alden would speak to the troubles brewing amongst his flock and then point them back to the way....But how the times have changed...

In a recent study, 64% of people surveyed said that they looked to athletes as their role models more than pastors and clergy.  Even more startling, pastors were ranked #8 on a list of professions people considered to be trustworthy and ethical.  Pastors were one spot behind college professors and just two above chiropractors....But it could be worse. We could be car salesmen or members of Congress ( dead last ).  During the run up to the Super Bowl played last week, the Ravens Ray Lewis was held up as the model for us believers to praise as his faith was played out in bigger than life terms.  But looking to him as a role model can prove troubling as his failures have been well documented.  Sports writer Frank Deford described it in this fashion,

"He is not, shall we say, quite the exemplary family man, having sired six children with a variety of women. He was indicted for murder in the year 2000, turned state's evidence and pled guilty to obstruction of justice. And, of course, he can be a brutal player—witness the monstrous illegal hit he pummeled the Patriots' Aaron Hernandez with in the AFL championship."

 

You see, Ray Lewis and I apparently have a great deal in common.  Not in the specific details of our failings or struggles nor even our near identical genetic advantages in the areas of strength and quickness ( stop laughing, its possible ).  Nor is it our chiseled physiques and fiery competitive nature (  seriously, stop laughing )... What we have in common has nothing to do with what the world values; strength, success, wealth. Instead, our commonality lies in our weakness.  The same weakness that afflicts athletes and pastors, chiropractors and congressmen, husbands and wives, We are all broken and hurting creations, longing to be loved and encouraged in a world quick to strike and destroy.  All of us struggle, to some degree, with the fallout of our worst decisions.... We all struggle with physical illness, emotional hurts.  The ability to deliver a crushing blow on 3rd and 2 no more insulates a person from pain than does the ability to turn a pretty phrase on a Sunday morning.  But, if Ray Lewis is to be believed, we have even more in common. We have found our answer in Christ, we have found our healing in Grace.

 But perhaps, far from being your role model, Ray Lewis' past makes his present message of faith hard for you to swallow. You long to sit next to the Ingalls family in the Walnut Grove Congregational Church and listen to the wise and loving Rev. Alden.  But perhaps, as Paul Harvey ( the voice over in the cool "farmer" commercial during the Super Bowl)used to say, Perhaps you need to hear the rest of the story...Robert Aldens personal story of pain and hurt,  despair and regret?

In the series Little House on the Prairie, Robert Alden was a prairie farmer who lost his entire family to a terrible disaster.  Alone and bitter, he turned to alcohol to dull the demons that raged within him.  Day after day, he descended further into anger and the bottle, until one day, when he came face to face with a god who loved him, who had a calling for his life.  A Father who lifted him above the circumstances of his life and forgave him his worst moments.  Transformed by Grace and called by God, Robert Alden became a pastor.

You see, more amazing than a persons ability to run fast or jump high is Gods ability to forgive and transform the lives of people who have stumbled and fell. Greater than the ability to speak well is the desire to speak hope into the lives of the hurting.  But most amazing of all, still is and will continue to be, the grace of God, equally available to Super Bowl athletes, pastors, chiropractors, car salesman......even congressmen.