The Shadow Knows
Stories
Object:
Contents
What's Up This Week
A Story to Live By: "How to Carry Heavy Burdens"
Shining Moments: "Is God Listening?" by Barbara Frank
Sermon Starter: "From an American Marine in Iraq"
Scrap Pile: "The Shadow Knows" by John Sumwalt
What's Up This Week
Jesus gives rest, Paul admits to sin, and an American soldier in Iraq tells of being saved by an innocent. These are the headliners in this week's edition of StoryShare. Check out John's reflections on the shadow sides of our personalities in the Scrap Pile. And don't miss John's retelling of a remarkable Abraham Lincoln story that will have your congregation sitting on the edge of their seats.
A Story to Live By
How to Carry Heavy Burdens
"Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
Matthew 11:28-30
A professor was giving a lecture to his students on stress management. He raised a glass of water and asked them: "How heavy do you think this glass of water is?"
The students' answers ranged from 20 grams to 500 grams.
The professor said: "The absolute weight does not matter. It depends on how long you hold it. If I hold it for a minute, it is easy. If I hold it for an hour, I will have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you will have to call an ambulance. It is always the same weight -- but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.
"If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later we will not be able to carry on -- the burden becomes increasingly heavier. What you have to do is put the glass down and rest for a while before holding it again. You have to put down the burden periodically, so that you can be refreshed and be able to carry on.
"So before you return home from work tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it back home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whenever you feel yourself burdened with troubles, remember that the longer you carry them the heavier they will become. Put them down for a while each day. Pick up the yoke that Jesus offers and you will find rest for your soul."
Shining Moments
Is God Listening?
by Barbara Frank
"Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest."
Matthew 11:28
My 16-year-old son had a very difficult time in the years following his father's death. Counseling, from many sources, was of little help. School didn't seem important to him. His friends were few, and the ones he had were not the ones I would have chosen as good influences.
One evening, as I waited for him to come home from his part-time job, I saw him go behind the garage with a friend. After a few minutes, I followed. I found them smoking what I thought, from the smell of it, was marijuana. After breaking up their "party," I called my older son. He searched his brother's room and found more marijuana and drug paraphernalia.
I was in denial. Not my son! He comes from a good Christian family. I would have known if such things were going on in my house. He is just having a difficult time. This is the kind of thing that only happens to other people.
What a wake-up call!
After a day of soul-searching, prayers, and tears, I reached a decision. I had my son arrested.
Going to bed that night, I had second thoughts. What had I done? I prayed to God to please help me. In the darkness, a dim, distorted figure appeared; a presence. I had the feeling of arms surrounding me. Although I was responsible for this decision, I was not alone. God was listening!
My son had a few rough years, but today he has become a wonderful, responsible, and loving person, of whom I am very proud, and for whom I thank God every day.
Barbara Frank has been a member of Grand Avenue United Methodist Church in Port Washington, Wisconsin, for 20 years. She works for a sales promotion agency but lists her greatest accomplishment as being the mother of three sons and the grandmother of two.
Sermon Starter
From an American Marine in Iraq
At that time Jesus said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants..."
Matthew 11:25
As you know, I asked for toys for the Iraqi children over here, and several people sent them over by the box. On each patrol we take through the city, we take as many toys as will fit in our pockets and hand them out as we can. The kids take the toys and run to show them off as if they were worth a million bucks. We are as friendly as we can be to everyone we see, but especially so with the kids. Most of them don't have any idea what is going on and are completely innocent in all of this.
On one such patrol, our lead security vehicle stopped in the middle of the street. This is not normal and is very unsafe, so the following vehicles began to inquire over the radio. The lead vehicle reported a little girl sitting in the road and said she just would not budge. The command vehicle told the lead to simply go around her and to be kind as they did. The street was wide enough to allow this maneuver and so they waved to her as they drove around.
As the vehicles went around her, I soon saw her sitting there and in her arms she was clutching a little bear that we had handed her a few patrols back. Feeling an immediate connection to the girl, I radioed that we were going to stop. The rest of the convoy paused and I got out to make sure she was OK. The little girl looked scared and concerned, but there was a warmth in her eyes toward me. As I knelt down to talk to her, she moved over and pointed to a mine in the road.
If you sent over a toy to a Marine [or any service member], you took part in this.... Thank you so much for supporting us...
Semper Fi,
Mark
Gunnery Sergeant / USMC [United States Marine Corps]
Scrap Pile
The Shadow Knows
by John Sumwalt
I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.... For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.
Romans 7:15, 19-20
Some of you are old enough to remember the golden age of radio. I grew up in the 1950s, at the end of the radio era and the beginning of a new thing called television. I remember more television shows than radio shows, but there is one radio show that stands out in my memory. We used to listen to it in the barn while we were milking cows.
It is the opening of the show that I remember more than the drama. At the beginning of the broadcast the announcer would come on the air in a very sonorous, melodramatic voice, saying:
"Who knows what evil lurks in the minds and hearts of men? The shadow knows!"
What a great line! It set just the right tone for the dramatic battle with the sinister forces of evil which The Shadow fought every week.
The battle we fight with evil in our daily lives can be just as dramatic. Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts and minds of men, women, boys, and girls? God knows. Jesus knows. And if, like the Apostle Paul, we are honest with ourselves, we know.
Paul writes: "For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells in me" (Romans 7:19-20).
Paul is baring his soul. He is telling of a personal experience which is the very essence of the human condition. He knows what is right and wants to do it, and yet somehow he can never quite do it. He knows what is wrong, and the last thing he wants is to do wrong, and yet somehow he always does.
It sounds almost like he is describing what we moderns would call a split personality. It is as if two people are inside of one skin, pulling in different directions.
Have you been there? Has there been an occasion when you knew what was morally right to do and committed yourself to doing it -- and yet when it came right down to it, found yourself doing just the opposite?
And then what? You are disappointed in yourself, angry, sometimes overcome with guilt and self-loathing. Is there anything worse than that?
Carl Jung called the "sin that dwells in us" the shadow side of the personality. He saw evil as a powerful fact, and it seemed to him that Christians don't take evil seriously enough. Jung believed that evil is present in all of us much more than we are willing to admit. The evil within us, the shadow, is that part of the personality that we reject, that we would like to believe is not there. But the more we deny it, the more it controls us.
Jung wrote: "If I do manage to repress the shadow side of my personality completely a curious thing happens. I project my shadow onto someone else... I shall see another person as the embodiment of all that I dislike and despise in myself... He... enables me to maintain a good opinion of myself because he carries my rejected bad qualities, which otherwise I might have to acknowledge as my own."(Quoted in Jung and the Christian Way by Christopher Rex Bryant; Darton, Longman, and Todd, 1983)
"For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells in me."
In these two short verses Paul sets a powerful example. He admits to doing evil. How many spiritual leaders in history have been so candid about their own sin? Preachers and prophets are reluctant to confess their sins in public for fear that it will damage their credibility. Political leaders are even more reluctant. When was the last time you heard a world leader mention the word "sin," much less confess to any personal sin? It doesn't happen very often, yet leaders are just as frail as the rest of us.
Abraham Lincoln was once challenged to a duel when he was a young man. The year was 1842, when Lincoln was a lawyer in Springfield, Illinois. He had apparently sent some letters to the editor of the local paper making sport of a political foe, one James Shields, who was at that time the State Auditor. Shields was a handsome man, well-mannered, a good dancer, much admired by the ladies, a war hero, and a dead shot with a pistol. He and Lincoln disagreed over what Lincoln thought was an unfair tax ruling that was damaging to the poor.
The letters to the Sangamon Journal "condemned Shields' fiscal policy and implied that Shields was a liar and a fool." One letter "scoffed at Shields' social performances, 'floating from one lady to another' on the dance floor, displaying his distress for being so 'handsome and interesting' yet unwilling to marry any of the eligible women who deserved him. The letter also speculated that Shields, who was 36, might wind up marrying a barrel- shaped widow of 60 winters. The letters, crowded with back woods dialect, were signed 'Rebecca,' supposedly a chronicler of the goings-on in Springfield."
Shields demanded to know who had written the letters. Lincoln had written one letter and had helped Mary Todd and her friend compose the others. He took full responsibility for writing all the letters. "Shields, well-known for his pistol skill, challenged Lincoln to a duel and to name the weapons." Lincoln accepted after much deliberation, and chose cavalry broadswords because he was much taller and had a longer reach than the 5'6" Shields. Lincoln would regret the decision to duel the rest of his life.
The duel was to take place on a Mississippi River sandbar called Bloody Island, a notorious dueling ground. "On Bloody Island -- as biographer Carl Sandburg recounts -- Lincoln sat calmly on a willow log, taking warm-up swings with his great broadsword.... Then Lincoln, apparently sensing that Shields was watching, 'arose and slashed and swished the air in all directions.' ...Lincoln felt along the edge of the weapon with his thumb, like the barber feels the edge of his razor. He raised himself to his full height, stretched out his arms, and clipped a twig from the tree above his head."
It was a ridiculous sight, which nearly caused one observer to laugh out loud at the idea of such an extraordinarily tall man as Lincoln fighting a short man with very limited reach. Shields apparently saw the absurdity of it too, for a peace was negotiated immediately and the duel canceled.
"In her book Mary Lincoln: Biography of a Friend, author Ruth Painter Randall wrote that Lincoln told a friend: 'I did not want to kill Shields, and I felt sure I could disarm him. Furthermore, I didn't want the damned fellow to kill me, which I rather think he would have done if we had used pistols.' ...Lincoln's public life was not damaged by stories about the prospective duel. But it left a private anguish... 'The occasion was so silly that my husband was always ashamed of it,' Mary Todd Lincoln once wrote to a friend. 'It annoyed his peaceful nerves. We mutually agreed never to mention it.' At a White House reception a general was 'so ill advised as to bring up the subject,' Mrs. Lincoln was quoted as saying. 'Mr. President,' the general asked, 'is it true, as I have heard, that you once went out to fight a duel, and all for the sake of the lady at your side?' 'I do not deny it,' said Lincoln, his face flushing. 'However, if you desire my friendship, you will never mention it again.' " (Noel Wical, Milwaukee Journal, March 8, 1992)
We all have our shadow sides -- events from our past which we would rather not remember.
Acknowledgement of the shadow, confession of sin, Jung believed, is essential for good spiritual health. It has to be done regularly and it is never routine. It may be the most difficult thing we humans have to do. Consequently, some people are never able to truly confess their sin. It is just too difficult to look at that part of the self that we don't want to believe is there.
M. Scott Peck writes in his book People of the Lie: "The central defect of the evil person is not the sin but the refusal to acknowledge it.... [T]hose who cross over the line are characterized by their absolute refusal to tolerate the sense of their own sinfulness. Unpleasant as it may be, a sense of our own sinfulness is precisely that which keeps our sin from getting out of hand.... One of the signs of spiritual health is a soul in anguish. A person who is aware of his or her sin and is troubled by it is on the road to salvation. Spiritual pain, like physical pain, is a warning. It tells us something is wrong and we better do something about it. It is the person who feels no pain or denies his or her pain who is in the greatest danger."
This is one of the things that makes Paul's letter to the Roman church so remarkable. He shares his own anguish over sin.
"I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate."
That ever happen to you? All the time, right? And does it bother you? Good! Because then you are ready to sing "Amazing Grace" and know what you are singing about.
It is part of the human condition that we know the right and do the wrong, that we are never as good as know we ought to be. And if we deny that this is true our denial is belied by a cry of anguish from deep in the depths of our beings -- because the shadow knows, and the shadow will make itself known.
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New Book
The third book in the vision series, Shining Moments: Visions of the Holy in Ordinary Lives (edited by John Sumwalt), is now available from CSS Publishing Company. (Click on the title for information about how to order.) Among the 60 contributing authors of these Chicken Soup for the Soul-like vignettes are Ralph Milton, Sandra Herrmann, Pamela J. Tinnin, Richard H. Gentzler Jr., David Michael Smith, Anne Sunday, Nancy Nichols, William Lee Rand, Gail Ingle, and Rosmarie Trapp, whose family story was told in the classic movie The Sound of Music. The stories follow the lectionary for Cycle A.
Other Books by John & Jo Sumwalt
Sharing Visions: Divine Revelations, Angels, and Holy Coincidences
Vision Stories: True Accounts of Visions, Angels, and Healing Miracles
Life Stories: A Study in Christian Decision Making
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle A
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle B
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle C
Lectionary Tales for the Pulpit: 62 Stories for Cycle B
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About the Editors
John E. Sumwalt is the pastor of Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church in Milwaukee, and is the author of eight books for CSS. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary (UDTS), John received the Herbert Manning Jr. award for Parish Ministry from UDTS in 1997. John is known in the Milwaukee area for his one-minute radio spots which always include a brief story. He concludes each spot by saying, "I'm John Sumwalt with 'A Story to Live By' from Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church."
John has done numerous storytelling events for civic, school, and church groups, as well as on radio and television. He has performed at a number of fundraisers for the homeless, the hungry, Habitat for Humanity, and women's shelters. Since the fall of 1999, when he began working on the Vision Stories series, he has led seminars and retreats around the themes "A Safe Place to Tell Visions," "Vision Stories in the Bible and Today," and coming this spring: "Soul Growth: Discovering Lost Spiritual Dimensions." To schedule a seminar or a retreat, write to jsumwalt@naspa.net or phone 414-257-1228.
Joanne Perry-Sumwalt is director of Christian Education at Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church in Milwaukee. Jo is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, with a degree in English and writing. She has co-authored two books with John, Life Stories: A Study In Christian Decision Making and Lectionary Tales For The Pulpit: 62 Stories For Cycle B. Jo writes original curriculum for church classes. She also serves as the secretary of the Wisconsin chapter of the Christian Educators Fellowship (CEF), and is a member of the National CEF.
Jo and John have been married since 1975. They have two grown children, Kathryn and Orrin. They both love reading, movies, long walks with Chloe (their West Highland Terrier), and working on their old farmhouse in southwest Wisconsin.
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StoryShare, July 3, 2005, issue.
Copyright 2005 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
What's Up This Week
A Story to Live By: "How to Carry Heavy Burdens"
Shining Moments: "Is God Listening?" by Barbara Frank
Sermon Starter: "From an American Marine in Iraq"
Scrap Pile: "The Shadow Knows" by John Sumwalt
What's Up This Week
Jesus gives rest, Paul admits to sin, and an American soldier in Iraq tells of being saved by an innocent. These are the headliners in this week's edition of StoryShare. Check out John's reflections on the shadow sides of our personalities in the Scrap Pile. And don't miss John's retelling of a remarkable Abraham Lincoln story that will have your congregation sitting on the edge of their seats.
A Story to Live By
How to Carry Heavy Burdens
"Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
Matthew 11:28-30
A professor was giving a lecture to his students on stress management. He raised a glass of water and asked them: "How heavy do you think this glass of water is?"
The students' answers ranged from 20 grams to 500 grams.
The professor said: "The absolute weight does not matter. It depends on how long you hold it. If I hold it for a minute, it is easy. If I hold it for an hour, I will have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you will have to call an ambulance. It is always the same weight -- but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.
"If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later we will not be able to carry on -- the burden becomes increasingly heavier. What you have to do is put the glass down and rest for a while before holding it again. You have to put down the burden periodically, so that you can be refreshed and be able to carry on.
"So before you return home from work tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it back home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whenever you feel yourself burdened with troubles, remember that the longer you carry them the heavier they will become. Put them down for a while each day. Pick up the yoke that Jesus offers and you will find rest for your soul."
Shining Moments
Is God Listening?
by Barbara Frank
"Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest."
Matthew 11:28
My 16-year-old son had a very difficult time in the years following his father's death. Counseling, from many sources, was of little help. School didn't seem important to him. His friends were few, and the ones he had were not the ones I would have chosen as good influences.
One evening, as I waited for him to come home from his part-time job, I saw him go behind the garage with a friend. After a few minutes, I followed. I found them smoking what I thought, from the smell of it, was marijuana. After breaking up their "party," I called my older son. He searched his brother's room and found more marijuana and drug paraphernalia.
I was in denial. Not my son! He comes from a good Christian family. I would have known if such things were going on in my house. He is just having a difficult time. This is the kind of thing that only happens to other people.
What a wake-up call!
After a day of soul-searching, prayers, and tears, I reached a decision. I had my son arrested.
Going to bed that night, I had second thoughts. What had I done? I prayed to God to please help me. In the darkness, a dim, distorted figure appeared; a presence. I had the feeling of arms surrounding me. Although I was responsible for this decision, I was not alone. God was listening!
My son had a few rough years, but today he has become a wonderful, responsible, and loving person, of whom I am very proud, and for whom I thank God every day.
Barbara Frank has been a member of Grand Avenue United Methodist Church in Port Washington, Wisconsin, for 20 years. She works for a sales promotion agency but lists her greatest accomplishment as being the mother of three sons and the grandmother of two.
Sermon Starter
From an American Marine in Iraq
At that time Jesus said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants..."
Matthew 11:25
As you know, I asked for toys for the Iraqi children over here, and several people sent them over by the box. On each patrol we take through the city, we take as many toys as will fit in our pockets and hand them out as we can. The kids take the toys and run to show them off as if they were worth a million bucks. We are as friendly as we can be to everyone we see, but especially so with the kids. Most of them don't have any idea what is going on and are completely innocent in all of this.
On one such patrol, our lead security vehicle stopped in the middle of the street. This is not normal and is very unsafe, so the following vehicles began to inquire over the radio. The lead vehicle reported a little girl sitting in the road and said she just would not budge. The command vehicle told the lead to simply go around her and to be kind as they did. The street was wide enough to allow this maneuver and so they waved to her as they drove around.
As the vehicles went around her, I soon saw her sitting there and in her arms she was clutching a little bear that we had handed her a few patrols back. Feeling an immediate connection to the girl, I radioed that we were going to stop. The rest of the convoy paused and I got out to make sure she was OK. The little girl looked scared and concerned, but there was a warmth in her eyes toward me. As I knelt down to talk to her, she moved over and pointed to a mine in the road.
If you sent over a toy to a Marine [or any service member], you took part in this.... Thank you so much for supporting us...
Semper Fi,
Mark
Gunnery Sergeant / USMC [United States Marine Corps]
Scrap Pile
The Shadow Knows
by John Sumwalt
I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.... For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.
Romans 7:15, 19-20
Some of you are old enough to remember the golden age of radio. I grew up in the 1950s, at the end of the radio era and the beginning of a new thing called television. I remember more television shows than radio shows, but there is one radio show that stands out in my memory. We used to listen to it in the barn while we were milking cows.
It is the opening of the show that I remember more than the drama. At the beginning of the broadcast the announcer would come on the air in a very sonorous, melodramatic voice, saying:
"Who knows what evil lurks in the minds and hearts of men? The shadow knows!"
What a great line! It set just the right tone for the dramatic battle with the sinister forces of evil which The Shadow fought every week.
The battle we fight with evil in our daily lives can be just as dramatic. Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts and minds of men, women, boys, and girls? God knows. Jesus knows. And if, like the Apostle Paul, we are honest with ourselves, we know.
Paul writes: "For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells in me" (Romans 7:19-20).
Paul is baring his soul. He is telling of a personal experience which is the very essence of the human condition. He knows what is right and wants to do it, and yet somehow he can never quite do it. He knows what is wrong, and the last thing he wants is to do wrong, and yet somehow he always does.
It sounds almost like he is describing what we moderns would call a split personality. It is as if two people are inside of one skin, pulling in different directions.
Have you been there? Has there been an occasion when you knew what was morally right to do and committed yourself to doing it -- and yet when it came right down to it, found yourself doing just the opposite?
And then what? You are disappointed in yourself, angry, sometimes overcome with guilt and self-loathing. Is there anything worse than that?
Carl Jung called the "sin that dwells in us" the shadow side of the personality. He saw evil as a powerful fact, and it seemed to him that Christians don't take evil seriously enough. Jung believed that evil is present in all of us much more than we are willing to admit. The evil within us, the shadow, is that part of the personality that we reject, that we would like to believe is not there. But the more we deny it, the more it controls us.
Jung wrote: "If I do manage to repress the shadow side of my personality completely a curious thing happens. I project my shadow onto someone else... I shall see another person as the embodiment of all that I dislike and despise in myself... He... enables me to maintain a good opinion of myself because he carries my rejected bad qualities, which otherwise I might have to acknowledge as my own."(Quoted in Jung and the Christian Way by Christopher Rex Bryant; Darton, Longman, and Todd, 1983)
"For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells in me."
In these two short verses Paul sets a powerful example. He admits to doing evil. How many spiritual leaders in history have been so candid about their own sin? Preachers and prophets are reluctant to confess their sins in public for fear that it will damage their credibility. Political leaders are even more reluctant. When was the last time you heard a world leader mention the word "sin," much less confess to any personal sin? It doesn't happen very often, yet leaders are just as frail as the rest of us.
Abraham Lincoln was once challenged to a duel when he was a young man. The year was 1842, when Lincoln was a lawyer in Springfield, Illinois. He had apparently sent some letters to the editor of the local paper making sport of a political foe, one James Shields, who was at that time the State Auditor. Shields was a handsome man, well-mannered, a good dancer, much admired by the ladies, a war hero, and a dead shot with a pistol. He and Lincoln disagreed over what Lincoln thought was an unfair tax ruling that was damaging to the poor.
The letters to the Sangamon Journal "condemned Shields' fiscal policy and implied that Shields was a liar and a fool." One letter "scoffed at Shields' social performances, 'floating from one lady to another' on the dance floor, displaying his distress for being so 'handsome and interesting' yet unwilling to marry any of the eligible women who deserved him. The letter also speculated that Shields, who was 36, might wind up marrying a barrel- shaped widow of 60 winters. The letters, crowded with back woods dialect, were signed 'Rebecca,' supposedly a chronicler of the goings-on in Springfield."
Shields demanded to know who had written the letters. Lincoln had written one letter and had helped Mary Todd and her friend compose the others. He took full responsibility for writing all the letters. "Shields, well-known for his pistol skill, challenged Lincoln to a duel and to name the weapons." Lincoln accepted after much deliberation, and chose cavalry broadswords because he was much taller and had a longer reach than the 5'6" Shields. Lincoln would regret the decision to duel the rest of his life.
The duel was to take place on a Mississippi River sandbar called Bloody Island, a notorious dueling ground. "On Bloody Island -- as biographer Carl Sandburg recounts -- Lincoln sat calmly on a willow log, taking warm-up swings with his great broadsword.... Then Lincoln, apparently sensing that Shields was watching, 'arose and slashed and swished the air in all directions.' ...Lincoln felt along the edge of the weapon with his thumb, like the barber feels the edge of his razor. He raised himself to his full height, stretched out his arms, and clipped a twig from the tree above his head."
It was a ridiculous sight, which nearly caused one observer to laugh out loud at the idea of such an extraordinarily tall man as Lincoln fighting a short man with very limited reach. Shields apparently saw the absurdity of it too, for a peace was negotiated immediately and the duel canceled.
"In her book Mary Lincoln: Biography of a Friend, author Ruth Painter Randall wrote that Lincoln told a friend: 'I did not want to kill Shields, and I felt sure I could disarm him. Furthermore, I didn't want the damned fellow to kill me, which I rather think he would have done if we had used pistols.' ...Lincoln's public life was not damaged by stories about the prospective duel. But it left a private anguish... 'The occasion was so silly that my husband was always ashamed of it,' Mary Todd Lincoln once wrote to a friend. 'It annoyed his peaceful nerves. We mutually agreed never to mention it.' At a White House reception a general was 'so ill advised as to bring up the subject,' Mrs. Lincoln was quoted as saying. 'Mr. President,' the general asked, 'is it true, as I have heard, that you once went out to fight a duel, and all for the sake of the lady at your side?' 'I do not deny it,' said Lincoln, his face flushing. 'However, if you desire my friendship, you will never mention it again.' " (Noel Wical, Milwaukee Journal, March 8, 1992)
We all have our shadow sides -- events from our past which we would rather not remember.
Acknowledgement of the shadow, confession of sin, Jung believed, is essential for good spiritual health. It has to be done regularly and it is never routine. It may be the most difficult thing we humans have to do. Consequently, some people are never able to truly confess their sin. It is just too difficult to look at that part of the self that we don't want to believe is there.
M. Scott Peck writes in his book People of the Lie: "The central defect of the evil person is not the sin but the refusal to acknowledge it.... [T]hose who cross over the line are characterized by their absolute refusal to tolerate the sense of their own sinfulness. Unpleasant as it may be, a sense of our own sinfulness is precisely that which keeps our sin from getting out of hand.... One of the signs of spiritual health is a soul in anguish. A person who is aware of his or her sin and is troubled by it is on the road to salvation. Spiritual pain, like physical pain, is a warning. It tells us something is wrong and we better do something about it. It is the person who feels no pain or denies his or her pain who is in the greatest danger."
This is one of the things that makes Paul's letter to the Roman church so remarkable. He shares his own anguish over sin.
"I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate."
That ever happen to you? All the time, right? And does it bother you? Good! Because then you are ready to sing "Amazing Grace" and know what you are singing about.
It is part of the human condition that we know the right and do the wrong, that we are never as good as know we ought to be. And if we deny that this is true our denial is belied by a cry of anguish from deep in the depths of our beings -- because the shadow knows, and the shadow will make itself known.
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New Book
The third book in the vision series, Shining Moments: Visions of the Holy in Ordinary Lives (edited by John Sumwalt), is now available from CSS Publishing Company. (Click on the title for information about how to order.) Among the 60 contributing authors of these Chicken Soup for the Soul-like vignettes are Ralph Milton, Sandra Herrmann, Pamela J. Tinnin, Richard H. Gentzler Jr., David Michael Smith, Anne Sunday, Nancy Nichols, William Lee Rand, Gail Ingle, and Rosmarie Trapp, whose family story was told in the classic movie The Sound of Music. The stories follow the lectionary for Cycle A.
Other Books by John & Jo Sumwalt
Sharing Visions: Divine Revelations, Angels, and Holy Coincidences
Vision Stories: True Accounts of Visions, Angels, and Healing Miracles
Life Stories: A Study in Christian Decision Making
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle A
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle B
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle C
Lectionary Tales for the Pulpit: 62 Stories for Cycle B
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About the Editors
John E. Sumwalt is the pastor of Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church in Milwaukee, and is the author of eight books for CSS. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary (UDTS), John received the Herbert Manning Jr. award for Parish Ministry from UDTS in 1997. John is known in the Milwaukee area for his one-minute radio spots which always include a brief story. He concludes each spot by saying, "I'm John Sumwalt with 'A Story to Live By' from Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church."
John has done numerous storytelling events for civic, school, and church groups, as well as on radio and television. He has performed at a number of fundraisers for the homeless, the hungry, Habitat for Humanity, and women's shelters. Since the fall of 1999, when he began working on the Vision Stories series, he has led seminars and retreats around the themes "A Safe Place to Tell Visions," "Vision Stories in the Bible and Today," and coming this spring: "Soul Growth: Discovering Lost Spiritual Dimensions." To schedule a seminar or a retreat, write to jsumwalt@naspa.net or phone 414-257-1228.
Joanne Perry-Sumwalt is director of Christian Education at Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church in Milwaukee. Jo is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, with a degree in English and writing. She has co-authored two books with John, Life Stories: A Study In Christian Decision Making and Lectionary Tales For The Pulpit: 62 Stories For Cycle B. Jo writes original curriculum for church classes. She also serves as the secretary of the Wisconsin chapter of the Christian Educators Fellowship (CEF), and is a member of the National CEF.
Jo and John have been married since 1975. They have two grown children, Kathryn and Orrin. They both love reading, movies, long walks with Chloe (their West Highland Terrier), and working on their old farmhouse in southwest Wisconsin.
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StoryShare, July 3, 2005, issue.
Copyright 2005 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
