CHRIST IN WINTER:
Reflections on Faith for the Years of Winter
I’m thinking this morning
of my friend and colleague, Grantland Sharp, may he rest in peace, as he was
not allowed to in life.
He was cursed with that
classy name. [1] He was cursed with rugged, thoughtful good looks. He was
cursed with a pleasant baritone voice.
Unfortunately, he was not
any of the things that his name and looks and voice promised.
It wasn’t his fault. It
was his parents who chose his name, and, in the genetic way, chose his good
looks and his manly voice. It was his parents who reared him to be a nice and
caring person. Unfortunately, they did not rear him to live up to his image.
He was not a Grantland
Sharp. More of a Wilbur Dull. He was not rugged and thoughtful. More reticent
and shallow. His voice was manly, yes, but monotonic.
His entire life and
career, people expected him to live up to the promises his name and looks and
voice made. When he couldn’t do it, they despised him. They thought he was a
fraud, when actually, he was very authentic. He was always himself, but people
didn’t want the real Grant. They wanted his image.
Grant was a bit dull, but
he was not slow. He knew what people expected, and why they expected it. He
once told me, “Yes, it bothered me when I was young. Now, though, I know who I
am, and God knows who I am. That’s all that matters.”
JRMcF
1] Grantland Sharp is not
his real name, but it’s like that.
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