Yesterday was spent at the Slow Drip Spa as Joni received her next to last chemo treatment. We have learned so much over the past 16 months. An earlier story called the Cancer Chronicles linked some of the blogs that were written during this difficult journey. One of the more subtle but most important lessons is the subject of today’s humble ramblings. A country song reminded me again about a critical lesson that we learned just a few months down the long and winding road of treatment. Tracy Lawrence has a hit recording about friendship. The song is titled “You Find Out Who Your Friends Are” and Lawrence notes that some friends step up when there is a need. Run your car off the side of the roadGet stuck in a ditch way out in the middle of nowhereGet yourself in a bind lose the shirt off your backNeed a floor need a couch need a bus fare This is where
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I am not a crier. So it was a bit out of character when the tears started flowing yesterday as I drove through the canyon in downtown Dallas. I blame Lindsay for this event. Lindsay is my bride’s cousin who moved to Texas recently. She already loved country music so that saved us some time to indoctrinate her. We love having her in Big D but she is going to have to stop introducing me to songs that make driving dangerous. Lindsay told us about a song that we just had to hear. So I downloaded it to the trusty iPod and fired it up as I drove to work yesterday. The song is called Tough and it is performed by Craig Morgan. If you know much about our past year you will quickly see why this song had the Old Yeller/Field of Dreams effect on the eyeballs. The lyrics start innocently enough… She’s in the kitchen at the crack of dawn Bacon’s
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Shannon Spaulding studied and worked for twelve years to reach the top of her class at Jacksonville’s Samuel W. Wolfson High School. For achieving that academic achievement the Florida teen addressed her fellow graduates at the recent commencement ceremonies. I doubt that she suspected that her twenty minute address would fuel a national debate. First, some background on the story. This report is from writer Doug Hunington of christianpost.com. A high school valedictorian in Jacksonville, Fla., recently created a stir among attendants at her graduation when she shared about her faith in God and Jesus Christ throughout most of her 20-minute speech. Shannon Spaulding received mixed reactions for the advice she offered fellow graduates of Samuel W. Wolfson High School during her commencement speech last Friday evening, which included accepting Christ into their lives. While many expressed how her message was inappropriate for the setting, a majority of the audience seemed to agree with her message, applauding loudly throughout the speech. “The
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A song by Brandon Heath resonated with me recently. The song is called “I’m Not Who I Was” and that should describe any person who has decided to follow Jesus Christ. It certainly describes me. I am not who I was forty years ago or twenty years ago or even one year ago. This journey with Jesus cannot be status quo. You are either going forward or backward. Most of us have done both at various times during the journey. I have made a lot of mistakes over the thirty-eight years of my fumbling, bumbling, stumbling walk with Jesus. So the lyrics by Brandon Heath echo my own experience. I wish you could see me now I wish I could show you how I’m not who I was I used to be mad at you A little on the hurt side too But I’m not who I was I found my way around To forgiving you Some time ago But I never got
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So far our married children have not blessed us with grandchildren. So Joni and I enjoy our grand-dogs and practice varying amounts of patience as we await grand-parenthood. However, my beautiful nieces and not quite as beautiful nephew have produced some awesome grandnieces and grandnephews. I am proud of every single one of them. A recent story from my niece Diana made me both thankful and thoughtful. She experienced a “teachable moment” with her youngest son Caleb. This is the Encarta website definition of a teachable moment. A moment of educational opportunity: a time at which a person, especially a child, is likely to be particularly disposed to learn something or particularly responsive to being taught or made aware of something. In this story both Mom and Son learned something about grace. Diana picks up the story. Caleb was supposed to be in our backyard playing. That was the deal we had made. When I looked out he was not there. By the time I got to the
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A recent news story piqued my interest. Four Hooksett, New Hampshire town employees with 46 years of service between them were fired, in part for gossiping and discussing rumors of an improper relationship between the town administrator and another employee that Hooksett residents now agree were not true. The administrator complained, and after an investigation the town council fired the women, finding, “Gossip, whispering, and an unfriendly environment are causing poor morale and interfering with the efficient performance of town business.” “When I was given my termination papers, I just looked at the gentlemen that were present in the room and I said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding!’” said fired worker Sandy Piper, who insisted her comments weren’t out of line. “We discussed it on a lunch break, and then it ended.” The same thing happens everyday (except for the termination part) in offices all over this great land. Gossip happens everyday in neighborhoods, car pools and in annoying public cell
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There will soon be a history making moment in Major League Baseball. The long revered home run record of Henry Aaron will be broken by Barry Bonds. America was swept up in euphoria when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa shattered Babe Ruth’s single season record. The excitement helped save a game badly damaged by petty labor disputes. Now an accomplishment of much greater magnitude is approaching and America is apathetic or even hostile toward Barry Bonds. The reason? There is considerable reason to suspect that he enhanced his strength and performance with steroids. Here is the problem with being a Barry-hatah on that basis alone. MLB did not ban steroids until a couple of years ago. So Bonds did not violate any “rules” of Major League Baseball. He lived in a free floating world of situational ethics and he decided the greater good was to get stronger. Barry Bonds was certainly not alone in artificially building his body. And it is
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