It breaks your heart…
November 14, 2009 by eric
Filed under Stephen's Family & Friends
One of my favorite passages of writing comes from the mind of A. Bartlett Giamatti. Many people remember him as the commissioner of baseball that banned Pete Rose, but to me he’ll always be a thoughtful man that had a way with words, much like Stephen.
I first heard this piece during the 1989 World Series, a series that many remember for the interruption caused by the Loma Prieta earthquake but that Stephen and I prefer to remember as the series won by the Oakland A’s. As I sit here on this Saturday morning, in a state of suspended disbelief, I thought back to the first time I heard James Earl Jones reciting this passage:
“It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops. Today, October 2, a Sunday of rain and broken branches and leaf-clogged drains and slick streets, it stopped, and summer was gone.”
Every year when the A’s ended their season I would think back to this passage, but never before has it felt more appropriate than now.
One of the things we’d like to try and get together for the family is a scrap book of people’s memories, recollections and pictures of Stephen. We’d love for you all to take a moment and, either in the comments section of this thread or you can email them to eric@savingstephen.com, spend some time jotting down your thoughts, memories and recollections of Stephen.
Thank you.
How I saw Stephen
I had the pleasure of seeing Stephen on stage leading worship with a strong, fiery and genuine passion and also getting to talk to him about worship through music on a few occasions. As a student and worship leader in Sunrise’s Rooted and Crosstown ministries, I mean it when I say that he plays and sings with a fiery and genuine passion for Christ. I use ‘plays’ and ‘sings’ in the present tense because even now, and maybe even more so than before, he is worshiping his heart out for our loving Father. It was a blessing to see Stephen, having been through so many struggles, know who he is in Christ and worship Him with everything.
Friends, It Is Well With His Soul.
-Joseph
My Ipod seems to be programmed to remind me of Stephen every time I turn it on. I listen to it on shuffle, and every other song is Incubus or Dave Matthews or Counting Crows or Live. Stephen had a much broader taste in music than those few bands, of course, but these were the bands where our tastes in music intersected. Hearing their songs reminds me of bus rides from FOPC choir tours of long ago, or concerts that I went to with Stephen and Rosemary and our friends. I smile when I hear them, or I cry, but either way I think about Stephen and everything he meant in my life, the big things and the small things. I remember the time I cried on his shoulder at summer camp over some momentary heartbreak, and I got makeup all over his sweatshirt, but he didn’t mind. I remember in high school sitting on the quad during lunchtime and singing Anna Begins together, our favorite Counting Crows song. I remember how he came to my house the morning that I moved to college to say goodbye to me. I remember him insisting that I needed to see Flight of the Conchords and how right he was about it – hilarious. And I’ll always remember Stephen, guitar in hand at the front of a stage, leading worship with all his heart. He drew people to him with his charisma and intelligence, and his heart for God. He used his passion for music to share God with others, and I always admired that about him. But he was also kind and funny and a loyal friend, the kind you don’t ever forget. I will miss him always.
Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. John 16:22
Melissa
I had the good fortune of promoting an “accidental” concert with the 1st incarnation of Prescription. I will never forget the fire in his eyes and the passion that Stephen had. Thanks for the great memories.