How We Respond to Life
Anyone who reads my blog knows that I believe in and write about (and try to practice what I preach) parenting that is loving, sacrificial, considerate, Christ-like…
So…this post is not suggesting that we follow the parental model of Cecil Fielder. Just keep that in mind as you read…because I’m making a very different point…
Prince Fielder plays first base for the Detroit Tigers. He also happens to be the reigning MLB “iron man”—meaning his streak of playing in 440 consecutive games is the longest current streak.
Fielder has played through pain when other players would have taken a day off or even gone on the 15-day DL (Disabled List). How did he get so “tough”?
Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan writes that:
“When he was 12 years old, Prince Fielder was playing in a youth-league game and fouled a ball off his shin. He limped off the field and didn’t return. His father, onetime home run champion Cecil Fielder, asked what happened. Prince said he was a little hurt. Cecil said, “Huh.” He walked away. His face seared itself into Prince’s psyche.”
Prince responded, “I didn’t like the way he looked at me. So from then on, I felt like unless it’s broke, it’s my job to be in there.”
Now, we could argue that Cecil’s parenting lacked compassion. We could say that Cecil was living his life through his son. We might be accurate about one or both of those conclusions.
However, Prince Fielder had a choice that day and he’s made a choice every day afterwards.
He could have spent the rest of his life bemoaning his dad’s lack of sensitivity and blaming his dad for his own inability to handle his emotions and his pain in a healthy way.
He didn’t do that. He made another choice instead. He decided to play through pain. He decided to be tough, to tough-it-out.
Now, I understand that there are much more traumatic and abusive styles of parenting than a dad who is insensitive to his son’s minor injury. Growing up with a physically, emotionally, and verbally abusive alcoholic father—trust me, I understand. And I never want to compare pain/suffering and I never want to minimize anyone’s pain/suffering.
Now, I don’t know whether Prince Fielder “took his pain to God.” So, I can’t fully endorse, one way or the other, his response. I can derive an illustrative principle from his story.
Keeping all of this in perspective, here’s my point:
• We all have a choice in how we respond internally to life’s hurts.
• We all have a choice in how deal with our past parental pain.
Past pain, suffering, and abuse can potentially immobilize us.
Or, past pain, suffering, and abuse can potentially motivate us to turn to Christ’s healing hope and thereby be mobilized to trust Him and to serve others.
We can deny our past abuse which keeps us ultimately stuck. We can wallow in our past abuse which ultimately keeps us floundering and/or angry and/or living a self-focused life filled with a built-in excuse for our self-centeredness.
Or, we can take our suffering to Christ, find His healing and hope, and learn to suffer creatively—to use our suffering for the good of others.
Join the Conversation
What are you doing with your past pain, suffering, and abuse?
RPM Ministries: Equipping You to Change Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth
