It Just Doesn't Make Any Sense

Yesterday afternoon I was riding on a subway from Dulles Airport to BWI Airport. The doors opened and a young man stepped through them. Behind him was a middle-aged woman struggling to get two suitcases through the closing door. I was a long ways away, but thought about running over to help - thankfully the young man reached behind him, and without much effort at all lifted both suitcases clear of the closing doors. The woman thanked him, saying, "The kindness of a stranger is certainly appreciated."

I was within earshot as the two began discussing their lives. She asked him if he was a college student - "yes" - and she inquired about his scholastic life up until that point. "I'm a junior the kid said, "but I may not be able to finish. I have lung cancer for some reason - never smoked a single cigarette. They are going to operate, but it's pretty advanced."

The woman was understandably shocked, but the kid waved her off.

"It doesn't make much sense, I know," he said. "But I handed it all off to God right when the doctor told me. It was a problem that was too big for me to handle."

Life certainly throws those high and tight fastballs to the chin. I continued to read about the loss of a 14-year-old kid in my hometown. I thought of the heartbreak that it brought and most of the day I walked around in a fog, wondering why. Just why?

It just doesn't make any sense to me at all. A healthy child suddenly getting cancer? A tragic loss of life in a matter of seconds. In times like these it just seems that life is - as Tony Soprano mentioned - just a shit sandwich.

Do me a favor, pray for my friends, and even for the kind stranger on the subway. Perhaps the best advice is to hand God that which we can't understand.

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