His Train is Bound For Glory

My grandfather, John Homa, passed into eternal just a few weeks shy of his 100th birthday. Over the past two years, I had the immense blessing to spend time with him. During one of my many visits to see him, he and I talked for almost two hours, covering everything from his greatest fear to his happiest memory to his favorite vacation spot to his advice to me in my marriage to his favorite sport...

I asked him so many questions that towards the end of our conversation I thanked him for talking so much to me and I apologized for grilling him with so many questions. 

He chuckled before responding, "John Homa's Life by Mike."

I told him that it would be the book on how to live until 99 and 11/12 and be happy and healthy.

Those of us on the earlier side of 99 years of age could learn a few lessons from someone who:

• survived the Great Depression
• served in the Army during World War II
• worked the same job - a railroad engineer - for 35 years, rising out of poverty and retiring at the age of 55 with great financial stability
• remained married to the same woman for 56 years, faithfully caring for her throughout the final two years of her life
• traveled across the continental United States
• circumnavigated the globe, beginning and ending his life's journey in Berea, Ohio.

While there are countless lessons that could be included in this how-to on almost becoming a centenarian, my grandfather's passion for trains offers a wonderful vehicle by which we can take a trip toward a happy and healthy life. As I've reflected on the legacy of his life, I can see how trains marked just about every part of it.

Engineering trains was the job that he said he would have done even if he didn't get paid. It was what allowed him to stay out of active combat during World War II. Trains gave him the chance to travel across the country and accumulate enough wealth to have a winter - and eventually a permanent home - in Florida. 

For a kid whose widowed mother asked him to go into the neighbor's farm to pick up potatoes that had been unfit for harvest just so his family could eat, working on the railroad afforded my Grandpa a ticket to a new life. Even his signature on cards bore the sign of the railroad: underneath his name he always included "xoxo."

So, as a way to celebrate the life of my grandfather, John Homa, I invite us to board the train of his life and learn three lessons so that we, too, might travel as far as he did on this earth. 

• Stay on track. Trains can't deviate from their tracks and my Grandpa didn't either. He was a creature of habit and his routines ruled supreme. But, he didn't just stay on track. He stayed on the right tracks:
• Keep moving: Upon his retirement, he would play golf every day. He did this until my Grandma needed extra care and moved into a nursing home. From that moment on, he would go to visit her instead of golf. Once she passed away, this routine morphed into daily morning walks. A key part of this movement included his novel eating habits: he would typically only eat one meal a day, fasting well before it became fashionable. 
• Keep on schedule: He was always on time. Just like a train that kept on schedule, my Grandpa would get to appointments or meet-ups well in advance of the agreed upon time - if you merely showed up on time, he would tell you that you were late. 
• Connect with others: Trains connect people, cities, and industries. The web or railways that cross our country appear as the veins supplying blood to the body of America (see below). After the passing of my Father, Grandpa would call my Mom every morning at 5:30 a.m. (another nod to his schedule) proudly serenading her awake on his way to meet his Baloney Club members. He was the most consistent card giver I have ever met, sending specific cards for every occasion (I never knew there were so many "To Grandson and His Family" cards to choose from!). 

• Stay young at heart. Trains are somewhat of a universal toy. Even as trains have fallen out of the day-to-day importance for most people, they have remained staples in our toy boxes, around our Christmas trees, and in our hearts as something that evokes excitement and fun. The sound of the whistle, counting cars at a crossing, racing trains on the highways. Trains bring out the kid in all of us. And, all the way up to the end of his life, my Grandpa stayed young at heart. My Grandpa loved telling and listening to jokes. His chuckle often replaced spoken responses. He loved playing and watching golf - quipping that Max Homa, who experienced decent success at this year's Masters, wasn't related to us because, in the words of my Grandpa, "I'm much better looking that him." He loved dessert and snacks - never overindulging but rather delighting in slices of pie, pieces of cake, cheese balls, popcorn, potato sticks, and finger foods like ribs and chicken wings. He played cards. He traveled. He read books. He listened to the radio. Like the soul of a train that stirs the kid in all of us, my Grandpa stayed young at heart. 
• Stay strong. Trains are strong. Cow Catchers effortlessly remove obstacles on a train's track. Superman's strength was compared to the power of a locomotive. The transcontinental railroad cut through and went under and climbed up and sped down mountains. Like a speeding train, my Grandpa was strong. As a teenager, he organized a strike of caddies, throwing a scab attempting to cross the line into a nearby pond. When asked by one of his great-granddaughters why he enlisted in the Army, he boldly responded, "So we could win the war." His love for my Grandmother exuded strength. He was chivalrous and loyal and sacrificial, and I was blessed to witness the strength of his love for her as he cared for my Grandma during the final stages of her life. He would remind me to open doors for my wife and to not forget how blessed I was to have her as my bride. His strength continued all the way - and perhaps most powerfully - until the end of his life. Sometimes strength requires submission. Despite being independent for 98 years of his life, he graciously accepted the care of others as his body declined. Even a train that's slowing down and pulling into its station can't easily be stopped by virtue of its strength. Like a train in motion or standing still, my Grandpa stayed strong his entire life.

Stay on (the right) track. Stay young at heart. Stay strong. 

Three simple lessons. 99 and 11/12 beautiful years. 

One train bound for glory. 

All aboard. 

The Patient and Painful Path of Progress

"We were created for greatness—for God himself; we were created to be filled by God. But our hearts are too small for the greatness to which they are destined. Our hearts must be stretched…”

-Pope Benedict XVI, 2007, Spe Salvi, para. 33

“No pain, no gain” stood as a popular weightlifting mantra during my teenage and young adult years.

“Championships are won in the off-season” was another oft-quoted phrase in the sporting world, encouraging players to work hard to develop skills and athleticism during the days, weeks, and months outside of the season of competition.

“Pain is temporary, pride is forever” also attempts to remind people going through the paces of any sort of training to endure through excruciation to enjoy the excitement of excellence.

Instability, confusion, doubt, and discomfort pave the pathways of progress.

Growth inevitability requires stretching, rebuilding, reinforcing, repairing, restoring.

Whether in sports, the arts, learning, relationships, fitness, or our faith, getting better, smarter, stronger, faster, kinder, more loving, more patient, more faithful, more forgiving, or more hopeful involves struggle.

The depths of defeat.

The soreness required to get stronger.

The frustration of fine tuning - practicing something over and over and over…

The heartache of losing someone you love.

The sacrifice of seeing others as more important than yourself.

The confusion caused by concepts just beyond our mental capacity.

The mystery of a God Who is closer to us than we are to ourselves yet so far beyond anything we can imagine.

In no way does this idolize pain. Nor does this invite ignoring abuse, neglect, irresponsibility, harm, or danger. There are many types of pain we should and must avoid and take action to keep ourselves and those we love safe from evil, harm, and illness.

But, if you find yourself in the in between stage, the passing through, the not yet, the middle - middle school, middle age, middle child, middle seat, middle just about anything - getting settled in a new job, new city, or new home or in the midst of graduate studies, or in one of the many stages of grief over the loss of a loved one, or battling a sickness, or trying to heal and restore a broken relationship, whatever your circumstances of being incomplete, trust in the slow work of God that is leading you to the greatness for which you were created.

Allow yourself to be stretched so that God can fill you with even more of Himself - more love, more strength, more compassion, more mercy, more justice, more forgiveness, more peace.

More of God, and less of me. Even when its painful. 

For His greatness, not mine.

Where It Happens

I’m in Cleveland, where those in the area will be able to witness the solar eclipse in its totality today. 

Cleveland, though, boasts the following stat: it ranks in the top ten cloudiest cities in the United States. As such, viewing this once in a lifetime event in Cleveland stands as probable at best.

For those of us who have heard about how awe-inspiring this occurrence promises to be, we must decide whether or not we travel to sunnier spots along the path of totality or if we just stay put.

Personally, I really want to be where it happens.

As I’ve reflected on the possibility that no matter what I decide to do - should I stay or should I go now? - that I might not witness this event, I’ve thought about why I so badly want to see a total eclipse of the heart…er, sun.

I want to witness the wonderful grandeur and incredible order of God’s creation. I want to observe the mysterious workings of His immense universe. 

But, do I need to be in a spot where the eclipse takes place to more fully believe in God? 

Will it add to my faith to see with my own eyes the creative God winks that I have heard described and documented - snake shadows, pinhole projections, altered animal behavior, the change in temperature, seeing the craters of the moon, and other joys? 

While it wouldn't hurt, I need to lean on the inspiration of my faith to be okay with whatever happens in a few hours.  

Thomas wasn’t initially in the room where it happened. It’s not clear whether any of the other disciples asked for the same proof of Jesus’s Resurrection but Jesus reminds Thomas and us, "Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed" (John 20:29).

Only Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Salome went to the tomb on Easter Sunday morning. I wonder if the other disciples regretted not accompanying them on this task to see and hear for themselves the empty tomb and the angel's testimony that "He has been raised; he is not here" (Mark 16:6). 

James didn’t accompany his running club mates of Peter and John on their sprint to see if the tomb really had been evacuated. Maybe James regretted his choice to skip this workout after discovering that he missed his chance to enter the vacant tomb and to see the burial clothes no longer serving their purpose (John 20:7). 

In all of these cases, those that didn't see or hear or touch or encounter had to rely on their faith to believe. Those that weren't in the room to watch Christ heal the person who had been paralyzed walk for the first time, had to trust in the accounts of others that what they had seen and heard was as they described (Mark 2:3-11). 

But, even those that aren't in the room where it happens still have exposure to the miraculous. 

The Resurrection proved that Jesus eclipsed sin and death.

While those in the path of totality (including me) will anxiously await four minutes of darkness, my baptism gave me the light of faith in Jesus Christ, a light which no amount of darkness can or ever will overcome. 

I can wonder and awe at the infinite fingerprints of God over all of His creation - from the beauty of a sunrise/sunset, to the intricacies of the heart, to the unknown ways in which the brain functions, to the aroma of flowers, to the exquisite taste of an orange, to the harmonies of a symphony, to the miraculous manifestation of God's love for me and my wife in the individuality of my three kids.

Each and every single day, God reveals to each of us His amazingness. 

Therefore, if I have the eyes, and ears, and heart of faith, I am always where it happens.