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Susie Haring

Unshakeable Faith

Susie Haring enters church backwards. “I can see more things going backwards,” says Susie, who fully trusts husband Mark’s navigational skills. “I may not know where I’m going, but I always know where I’ve been.”

Because Multiple Sclerosis has put a stop to her movement, Susie rolls into worship seated on a walker. Yet nothing can stop this woman’s unshakeable faith and determination. That’s one reason Susie, who cannot walk herself, is helping organize Prayer Walks for St. Paul people in October.

These autumn walks will be a chance to take prayer to the sidewalks of our central-city neighborhood. Spiritual strolling will be a way to focus our awareness on people and places — to pray for the well-being of the middle-schooler tossing a football, for safety and peace for the elderly man raking his yard. You’ll notice cracks in the sidewalk or families playing in the park — and bring them before God.

“We can grow as a faith community,” muses Susie. “It’s like we heard in worship: The stained glass windows are beautiful but we want to look out and see our neighbors, to let them know we’re here and we care.”

Turning to a favorite scripture passage, Susie says, “You know, where two or more are gathered (and walking)… you can find something in common and your faith grows.”

Susie spends her days managing ammunition equipment with the Department of Defense on the Rock Island Arsenal. It is an assignment that appeals to her inquisitive nature. How does she do it? “Adapt and overcome,” she laughs, quoting a Marine Corps mantra. She maneuvers corridors and an enlarged cubicle with an electric wheelchair. Voice recognition computer software keeps her fully connected with co-workers. And when professional travel is necessary, “people push and pull me.” Mark, a sister, or a girlfriend accompany her. Because her employer is “proactive about her disability, work is a breeze,” she says.

Diagnosed 15 years ago with this progressive disease, Susie focuses on “thinking of things I’m grateful for. My mind functions properly. I can talk. I’m grateful for whatever I have. Depression is a very real part of MS, and sometimes I do get a little down.” She misses being able to slide a sheet of cookies out of the oven or “go on a simple walk.”

But “God is right there taking care of me every day,” says Susie. When her daughter Angela died of cancer at the age of eight, it “shook me right back to the reality that there is a God.” She pauses. “Otherwise it would be totally unbearable.”

Says Susie, “I look up a lot,” chuckling about her worldview. “I have to. I pray for patience and strength. I do a lot of thanking. Without my family and Mark and friends and the church community… well, as long as you’re loved, you have everything. Real love endures.” She smiles. “I could not do one-millionth of what I do were it not for Mark. He is my rock.”

Susie shuns an oh-woe-is-me attitude. But frustrations and losses sometimes douse her spirit. She keeps turning to God. Susie counts on the assurance in John 3:16: “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.”

”I can be kind of down,” says Susie. “And then I come to church and it never fails. There’s a person with a bulletin who smiles at me or one part of a sermon — and that makes all the difference.”
Love keeps Susie Haring moving. God gives Susie a whole and lasting life. This “simple down-home farm girl” is not defined by her disability but by the love she bears for others. And Love calls her to get people on their feet and out into the church neighborhood.

“I love this Prayer Walk idea. It’s good for you. You get to be involved with other people. It’s walking for a marvelous reason. It’s saying that our church is here. Our doors are open. Everyone’s welcome to come.”

This intentional walking is about enacting our love for neighbors in prayer, about noticing God at work all around us.

Feet in flip-flops and running shoes will enter Susie’s spiritual imagination. Perhaps she and Mark will drive through Vander Veer Park or pause on Lombard Street, and smile or wave to people who pass by.

And you can count on Susie’s prayers too.

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"What is sin but the refusal to change - perhaps by holding the community hostage to individual self-will?" ~Suzanne Guthrie