It's Friday and I will be flying out to Tampa at 4 p.m. this afternoon. Estimated arrival time is 6 p.m. As I had said, the wonderful (wonderful, wonderful) people who made this happen will be hosting me along with five others on the plane as we head toward Super Bowl territory. For the sake of their privacy, I will not disclose their names until I get permission, and I will be asking for that this weekend. If they grant it, I will let you know.
I'm nervous. Nervous, can you believe it? I've been a mess since Wednesday, and the game isn't played until Sunday. Great for my stomach, let me tell you. We Steeler fans all get nervous before a game. It's like seeing your sons go onto the field. We're all family, and if you're a Pitt native you know what I'm talking about. It's a Burgh thing.
If you look at the picture of Raymond James Stadium here, I believe we will be sitting in the middle section just under that balcony. They're called Club Seats. If those indeed are the seats I have, as I checked ont eh Super Bowl ticket prices they start at $4500 apiece. Either we will be there or in some luxury boxes, and I can't even begin to tell you the price of those. I told them I don't care if I'm on the upper lip of the whole place. Just being there is going to be stunning.
I keep thinking about this roller coaster ride I've been taking in the past year. 2008 was a horrible year for me physically. In fact, it seems like it was a bad dream - a nightmare, in fact. My back felt like glass was embedded in it. Depression set in. I was fatigued most of the time to the point that even a phone call seemed like climbing a mountain. Hardly any of my spiritual mentors showed any concern at all, and I felt lost. And I thought, why are things so bad for me?
Yet here in 2009 I get a chance few other people in this world enjoy - I get to go to the Super bowl and watch my hometown team play. More that that, my boy Nicholas is getting married to a wonderful girl on May 9th. My wife Jill is enjoying better health and overcoming her fatigue week by week. Peter is growing in responsibility and has shown true grit through personal setbacks. Julianne, of course, is the light in the household. My back is almost healed and I can sit through a full church service. And I wonder, why have I got it so good?
I look at the Scripture (Mt. 5:45) and see that God brings in blessings to everyone and is impartial in his overall goodness, because He "causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous."
He knows my future and He brings gentle testings for my strengthening, and things I cannot understand at the moment. Yet as I walk through those dark valleys I must admit that God has a purpose and His ways are far beyong man's intellect; indeed "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain." as it says in Psalm 139:6.
Highs and lows in life. God has His watchful eye over all of it, and I must say that I am far beyond dissecting it for cerebral discourse, but I'm also continually amazed at how it all comes together time and time again.
