Confession

I have to tell you that I am not a Notre Dame fan. Never have been and probably never will be. However, I was very impressed with how they handled a very difficult situation this past weekend.

You have probably heard about the tragedy that struck the South Bend campus almost two weeks ago. Declan Sullivan (pictured above), a student videographer, was killed Oct. 27 when a hydraulic lift he was on toppled over while he was filming football practice in high winds - click here for the full story.

As soon as I heard this, my heart was hurting. In addition to my feelings for his family, I thought how awful it would have to be to be the coach (head coach Brian Kelly) who made the decision to practice outdoors that day. I was wondering how the university would handle this. This past weekend I found out--they did it with class.

"Declan Sullivan was entrusted to our care, and we failed to keep him safe," the Rev. John Jenkins, Notre Dame's president wrote in an email to students. "We at Notre Dame and ultimately I as president are responsible. Words cannot express our sorrow to the Sullivan family and to all involved."

This is a terrible situation that is extremely sad. However, I am very proud of Notre Dame's president for stepping up to accept the blame. He, personally, had nothing to do with the accident, but he is accepting responsibility on behalf of the university, a very classy thing to do. It seems that this is not normal in our society, especially the way lawsuits are filed at the drop of a hat. But Rev. Jenkins got this right.

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.

James 5:16a

Influence

My son, Robbie, and I watched the movie Rudy last night. I have seen it a couple of times while it was his first. As I have each time I've watched it, I got extremely choked up near the end of the film as this over-performing, marginal athlete finally achieves his goal. I'm not even close to being a Notre Dame fan but this is a great movie.

The obvious theme to the movie is about perseverance, grit, determination, attitude and overcoming incredible odds. This is all very inspiring stuff, yet during the show, I was saddened by two scenes.

In the first, Rudy is at the bus stop, ready to leave for South Bend to chase his dream after his best friend's funeral. His father stops by to tell him about his grandfather who had a dream to be a dairy farmer during the Great Depression. He explained all of the heartache his grandfather and others suffered. He then said something like, "Chasing your dream does nothing but cause problems for you and everyone around you."

The other scene occurs when Rudy is talking with one of his teammates, also a walk-on player. This player states that he hates playing football here and that the only reason he does is because his dad played here. He, in fact, had scholarship offers from two Big Ten schools but came here because of dad's pressure.

How sad. Both of these fathers missed opportunities to speak love and encouragement into their son's lives, yet they chose to squelch their dreams. The unfortunate thing about this is it goes on every day all around us. Not only in families but everywhere.

We all have tremendous influence over others, whether it be in our office, in the community or at home with our families. We have a choice to make, will that influence be positive or negative? Let's do our best to make sure that we are influencing others in a positive and uplifting way.

Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

1 Thessalonians 5:11