This Short Chapter, AKA Life

‘Your momentary troubles are passing and opening the gates of heaven to you.’ (2 Corinthians 4:17)

De: Peter Walker

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

Duración: 37 m

Resumen del Editor

(Excerpt from the Introduction)

I remember watching on the news the unfolding fate of a guy on death row. There was only about an hour left till execution. It was clear this guy was innocent. As I watched and listened, I jumped on my computer and wrote an email to the Governor of the State, imploring him to pick up the phone and put this one on hold. I said he didn’t want blood on his hands with such an obvious miscarriage of justice.

Nothing. Six o’clock came and went. Ten minutes later the guy was dead.

I get through a lot in life by looking at the clock and knowing that by this or that time, the task will be over. Just this morning I hauled out of bed for my routine exercise, only by thinking back from the end result. I thought, ‘In forty-five minutes I’ll be back, it’ll be done, and I feel good.’ So I hauled up.

In a sense, I managed the activity by blotting it out. I thought, ‘No one is aware of what I’m doing, the pain I’m going through. So I will also try to not be aware of what I’m doing, just knock it out, and plug back in when I’m done.’

And when I’m done, well, I’m showered, sitting, have the satisfaction of knowing I’ve worked out, and hear the coffee percolating in the background. That’s the moment, the reality I want to be in. So I sprint through the interim to get there. I remember as a young kid getting through the dentist like this, school like this, and on some level months and years like this.

I wondered as I watched the news that night if the guy facing execution caught a glimpse of a clock on the wall, picked a point ten or fifteen minutes out and thought, ‘When the minute hand hits that point, all will be over...’