Texas Home School Coalition
Political Action Committee
Celebrating over 2 decades of political action
to protect and promote home education in Texas!
THSC PAC Home : Two Choices
Two Choices
What would you do?....you make the choice. Don't look for a punch line, there
isn't one. Read it anyway. My question is: Would you have made the same choice?
At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves children with learning
disabilities, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would
never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its
dedicated staff, he offered a question:
'When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does, is done
with perfection.
Yet my son, clay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand
things as other children do.
Where is the natural order of things in my son?'
The audience was stilled by the query. The father continued. 'I believe that
when a child like Clay, who was mentally and physically disabled comes into the
world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes
in the way other people treat that child.'
Then he told the following story: Clay and I had walked past a park where some
boys Clay knew were playing baseball. Clay asked, 'Do you think they'll let me
play?' I knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Clay on their
team, but as a father I also
understood that if my son were allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed
sense of belonging and some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his
handicaps.
I approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not expecting much) if Clay
could play. The boy looked around for guidance and said, 'We're losing by six
runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and
we'll try to put him in to bat in the ninth inning.'
Clay struggled over to the team's bench and, with a broad smile, put on a team
shirt. I watched with a small tear in my eye and warmth in my heart. The boys
saw my joy at my son being accepted. In the bottom of the eighth inning, Clay's
team scored a few runs but was still behind by three.
In the top of the ninth inning, Clay put on a glove and played in the right
field. Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be in
the game and on the field, grinning from ear to ear as I waved to him from the
stands.
In the bottom of the ninth inning, Clay's team scored again.
Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base
and Clay was scheduled to be next at bat.
At this juncture, do they let Clay bat and give away their chance to win the
game? Surprisingly, Clay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all but
impossible because Clay didn't even know how to hold the bat properly, much less
connect with the ball. However, as Clay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher,
recognizing that the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in
Clay's life, moved
in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Clay could at least make contact.
The first pitch came and Clay swung clumsily and missed.. The pitcher again
took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Clay.As the pitch came
in, Clay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher.
The game would now be over.
The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could have easily thrown the ball to
the first baseman. Clay would have been out and that would have been the end of
the game. Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman's
head, out of reach of all team mates. Everyone from the stands and both teams
started yelling, 'Clay, run to first Run to first! 'Never in his life had Clay
ever run that far, but he made it to first base. He scampered down the baseline,
wide-eyed and startled. Everyone yelled, 'Run to second, run to second!
'Catching his breath, Clay awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming and struggling
to make it to the base. By the time Clay rounded towards second base, the right
fielder had the ball. The smallest guy on their team who now had his first
chance to be the hero for his team. He could have thrown the ball to the
second-baseman for the tag, but he understood the pitcher's intentions so he,
too, intentionally threw the ball high and far over the third-baseman's head.
Clay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him circled the
bases toward home. All were screaming, 'Clay, Clay, Clay, all the Way Clay'.
Clay reached third base because the opposing shortstop ran to help him by
turning him in the direction of third base, and shouted, 'Run to third!
Clay, run to third!' As Clay rounded third, the boys from both teams, and the
spectators, were on their feet screaming, 'Clay, run home! Run home!'
Clay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the
grand slam and won the game for his team
'That day', said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, 'the
boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love and humanity into this
world.'Clay didn't make it to another summer. He died that winter, having never
forgotten being the hero and making me so happy, and coming home and seeing his
Mother tearfully embrace her little hero of the day!
AND NOW A LITTLE FOOT NOTE TO THIS STORY:
We all send thousands of jokes through the e-mail without a second thought, but
when it comes to sending messages about life choices, people hesitate. The
crude, vulgar, and often obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but public
discussion about decency is too often suppressed in our schools and workplaces.
If you're thinking about forwarding this message, chances are that you're
probably sorting out the people in your address book who aren't the
'appropriate' ones to receive this type of message Well, the person who sent you
this believes that we all can make a difference.
We all have thousands of opportunities every single day to help realize the
'natural order of things.' So many seemingly trivial interactions between two
people present us with a choice: Do we pass along a little spark of love and
humanity or do we pass up those opportunities and leave the world a little bit
colder in the process?
A wise man once said every society is judged by how it treats it's least
fortunate amongst them.
You now have two choices:
1. Delete 2. Forward
May your day, be a Clay Day.
[Note]
This is a really special story. The sad thing is the writer (or speaker) missed
the entire point. Clay’s illness and subsequent death were not “random acts of
NATURE,” but the perfect will of a loving God who deals in the affairs of man.
True, “A wise man once said every society is judged by how it treats it's least
fortunate amongst them,” but this was not just some, unnamed “wise man,” this
was the God-Man, Jesus Christ.
This is a story of mercy and grace. The depiction of mercy and grace is our
Great God in heaven who took on the form of a man, and allowed evil men to beat
Himself, hang Himself on a tree, pierce His side, and bury Himself in a tomb.
He arose, returned to heaven, and allows us to enter his Holy abode, because His
death and resurrection were to pay for our sin and make us Holy before God.
That is not just the “natural order of things,” that is the essence of the
Christian faith.
I must tell you about ‘Pete.’ ‘Pete’ joined the co-ed, teen PE class I taught when he was about 14. ‘Pete’ was not an athlete because ‘Pete’ had cerebral palsy. It took him about two minutes to contort his body to “run” to first base. Without prompting, my kids also fired the ball over first base and granted mercy and grace for ‘Pete’ to have some success on the ball field. They did not allow ‘Pete’ to make a homerun every time, but he did get on base a time or two each week and enjoyed PE as much as all of the other teens.
I saw
‘Pete’ recently at a teacher conference. He is married to a beautiful, Godly
young woman, and was applying for a teaching position at a public school. Can
you imagine how much inner confidence and self-esteem one would need to teach
school with ‘Pete’s physical limitations in front of a bunch of juveniles? I
like to think that Teen PE had a small part in giving ‘Pete’ that mountain of
confidence.
God gives us opportunities to reach out to those who are hurting all of the
time. My prayer is that we seize those opportunities and make a small
difference in someone’s life.
Comments by Wade Hulcy