A Physicist and An Athlete
I watched The Theory of Everything last night with a friend of mine, it was available on Netflix, and looked interesting. Stephen Hawking was a very good physicist, but the movie left me feeling
If you’ve been reading my blog for a long time, you would’ve read about my grandparents, who are all amazing people. My Grandpa Glader has been confined to a wheelchair for about 10 years, but the number of people he has inspired through his life, and his continual trust of God even while sitting in a wheelchair is amazing and inspiring. You see, we may not know why God keeps my grandpa in the chair, but we do our best to continue to trust God.
My Grandpa hasn’t let his chair slow him down. You see, he got his doctorate in physical education. He has always been an avid fan of tennis, other various sports, and the outdoors. The thing is, he still does that, he packs his sports chair into his wheelchair van, plunks tennis balls between the spokes, grabs his racket and coaches me, and my cousins, as if nothing is different. You see he knows his strength is in Christ, and that God is in control of everything including him. That makes all the difference.
I will add that my grandpa is not nearly as limited as Stephen became, my grandpa only became paralyzed from the waist down, he also still has his voice. But the lifestyle changes and choices are comparable.
Stephen Hawking’s life, on the other hand, told a different story, The movie about him was interesting but overall depressing, you see, assuming he was, in fact, an atheist, that would mean he saw himself as in charge of his own life, so who else could he blame for his condition except himself. Of course, this isn’t the case, God is in control of everyone’s life, even those who don’t call Him Lord of their lives. In Stephen’s case, the movie ended with him professing how small we are in the grand scheme of things, while he’s not wrong, there was (obviously) no message of hope to go along with it, unlike the Gospel that my grandpa can share. Stephen Hawking may have been a good academic and his findings have helped us learn more about the universe, but there was no lasting joy to be found, at least in the film.
Our whole family prays that someday he might be healed and be able to walk again, until then we trust in God.
