6/10/13

Facing Life on Life's Terms


Fear Sad Glad

In the past four weeks as we started packing up our house to move  5000 miles from Anchorage Alaska back to Nashville Tennessee: 

  • I had a crazy lady run me off the road, try to run me down when I sought to get her license plate, and then lie to the insurance company and get away with it

  • my daughter Jessica graduated from High School in Alaska

  • my daughter JennaRae graduated from college in Minnesota

  • my family helped stage a semi-surprise visit to Alaska by Josh Patton who asked for my daughter JennaRae's hand in marriage. (September wedding in Nashville).

  • I took my youngest son David on a physically demanding and emotionally rich “rite of passage” weekend in the Alaska wild



  • my wife Brenda and I celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary

  • my mom had her second heart attack 

  • and a very close friend who I mentor and who mentors my son Jay was in a serious jet ski accident and was flown to Seattle where he is fighting for his life (Jay was w/ Trevor when it happened and was the one who rushed him to the hospital). 

A friend of mine said, “Jeff, that’s a lot!”  

I had one day when I just wanted to go to sleep and not wake up for a few days.  But mostly I’ve just FELT it all.  I remember Chip Dodd sharing with me that “what the heart won’t do, the body will do.”  If I refuse or deny my fear, I will be anxious.  If I refuse or deny my sadness, I will be mired in self-pity.  If I refuse or deny my hurt, I will be crushed under the weight of my resentment.  

But if I will surrender to my humanity and the neediness exposed by what my heart feels when facing life on life’s terms, I will be led to a needy place that brings me into intimate relationships with others and with a God who embraces my need.

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