Remembering Sonny Fai

As I begin to write this piece, I am hearing details about the miraculous US Airways flight that crashed into the Hudson. Given all that could have consequently happened, the fact that no one died is miraculous.

Watching and hearing from these survivors, one can see that they do not intuitively perceive their existence in an identical way they did when they boarded their flight some hours earlier. With staggering intensity, the realization of their mortality, and the realization of what they were about to lose, has flooded their experience. Some had said goodbye to their families, some had said goodbye in their hearts. While this is no resurrection life, it probably feels a close second.

Do you think their view of life and the worth that they place on making sure it maximised potential has increased?

Yes, I am sure if they were asked, they would affirm that they were seeking to live their lives to the fullest, but intellectual assent is Milli Vanilli compared with their subsequent reality.

While these individuals will live to tell of their account, over the past week, I have been remembering Sonny Fai.

For those of you who are not from the Australasian region, or who find sport and the grass that sport is played on are both similarly absorbing, you may not have heard of Sonny Fai. It was said by others that this young man was standing on the precipice of greatness. He was only 20 years young, and this was going to be the year when Sonny began to shine brightly in the world of Rugby League. He had the size, the stature, the strength, and the speed, blessed with the physical gifts that money can not buy. For example, Sonny could bench press 185 kg, and could even bench 175 kg at the age of 17 (guys will be impressed). In the age-group grades, he had left defenders in his wake. This was going to be the beginning of a new warrior for his club and country.

"Potential" is such a cunning word. It lulls you in and gives the appearance of something good, something positive, but as time becomes reflection, it signals something yet unfulfilled.

Sadly, Sonny Fai had such potential!

At a beach on the west coast of the upper North Island, this young man, viewing his own well-being as worth-less than those who were succumbing to the strength of the ocean, came to the rescue. Sonny's siblings and cousins, caught in a rip, were in trouble. Through Sonny Fai's will to let others live, all his siblings and cousins, who were helpless in the ocean, survived to live on.

However, while his siblings/cousins would make it to shore, Sonny did not, and has not been seen since, some two weeks later. He had successfully saved his family by putting himself at risk, thereby substituting his life for theirs. While his cousin blames himself for what happened, love is a debt we willingly continue to incur.

While there has been much searching for Sonny, he has not returned, and yet we hopelessly hope. In a nightmare of a scenario, this must only make the grief for his family worse.

While this is a tragic reality, I would hasten to guess that given the circumstances again, this young man would have put those he loved before himself. When something is of extreme worth, the concept of sacrifice looses its worth, and becomes calling, duty, honour, responsibility, love...

The survivors on the flight in NY, and the family of Sonny Fai, will not be the same following their experience. Life will have changed. Now, while it is true that their will be much reflection, and much mourning, sorrow, grief and pain for Sonny's family in particular. It is also true that this furnace, which has taken so much, in time will forge a new perspective in their lives.

Please understand what I am saying, it is easy to confuse the brevity of lines with the concept that is contained therein (In other words, the suffering will not be brief). Joesph spent approx. 15 years from his dreams to their fulfillment. Much of this intermission was filled with trial and pain. Yet, in the fullness of time, with his character and conception of a life well lived, truly changed, he was to meet his brothers, and weep for joy. Yes, what he had gone through was meant to harm him as a result of their skulduggery, but the darkness of the night was pregnant with the new day of fulfillment, which was good.

One of my favourite quotes that became significant as I became unwell was penned by Jim Elliot, one of murdered missionary's serving his Creator in the days of his youth in Ecuador. Jim says this, When it comes to die, make sure that all you have to do is die. In other words, live your life in such a way that you seize each moment, each opportunity, each day, and pour your life into those things that really count, that are really worthwhile. Sadly, for most of us, we can easily confuse worth with a self-centred pursuit pleasure, forsaking those things that really count, when ultimate pleasure has only one supplier - God (Christian Hedonism - Thanks John Piper).

However, it does not have to be this way. Think and Remember. James tells us to be careful about planning on our plans. No, he is not telling us to be foolhardy about planning for our futures, but he is telling us to have our passports at the ready, because there is His time, when we will need it. I believe Psalm 139 when it affirms that God has our life sorted out, beginning to end.

This means that from the moment you read this, there is a limit to how many days you have left, how many hours you have... left, ticking, how many more times your heart will continue to beat, how many times you will get an opportunity to speak to those you love the most, to speak to those who need to hear Christ the most, to do the things that matter the most.

The real question before us is this, are we living like there is no tomorrow? Because one day, unbeknown to you and me when it will be, there will be no.........!

On that final Sunday morning that Sonny Fai awoke, he probably had no idea that this day was his last (although I still want to hope). Let's take a random occurrence like breakfast, how would you savour and appreciate the experience if this was going to be your last ever breakfast. You would make sure that you took account of each mouthful and did not rush to inhale it down and rush out the door. You would contemplate what a blessing it was to have this food, each morning of your life, and the fact that this was your last, would truly impact you. There would probably be much regret that it was only at the end of your life that you truly got the most out of this experience, when you could have had this experience every morning of your life. Now connect the dots to every other sphere of your life. Think and Remember!

Consider those things of real worth, like the call of your Creator who wants to radically and continually transform your life and existence, so that you, yes you, live a life that truly radiates the worth of another young man's substitutionary act on your behalf, so that you could have life, yes, life abundantly. Don't waste another day, hour, heartbeat!

Reader, you were destined by Deity!

As you read this and I write this, we are all Sonny Fai, as we approach death in the dark. The day will dawn, the hour will come, and it will be worth the wait! In the meantime, make sure that all you have to do is die.

Until next time...