Christ Follower, Husband, Father, Writer
Cancer sucks.
No, I have never had it but I can tell you it sucks. I have watched if fought from the sidelines. I have been a part of the support system, oh, I am in the cast but I have never had the lead and I would be lying if I said I wanted the starring role. But it has lived in my house so I feel well equipped to write on this topic.
So, I can say without reservation that having cancer sucks – for everyone involved.
How much time do you spend beating yourself up for things you wish you had done? Or things you wished you’d done differently? Or things you’d wished you’d never done? Or, or, or…
That guy you dated for WAY too long, the girl you dumped WAY too soon, a class you wanted to take, a movie you wanted to see maybe you zigged when you should have zagged? I bet you have your own that you’re already thinking about.
I have not been very focused on PADAG recently. It is not that my interest in helping people find their way to God’s will has waned but to be perfectly honest, I have been so attuned to my own purpose that writing for this space has taken a back seat. This blog and all of you are on my mind all the time but my attention has been on other kinds of writing.
As today – last Friday by the time you read this – is Valentine’s Day, I thought I should write about all things love and romance.
Then I thought naawwwww, instead I am going to take this to a place it was never meant to go – the Christians,
What?
***NOTE*** The following is somethign I wrote to go with a post I am doing titled “Why Are You So Mad – The Face of Intolerance.” Which is a response to a blog post I read this week which illustrates the frustration I have being called intolerant for my beilefs. For some of my other thoughts on the question of intolerance I invite you to read this post.
So, last night – last week by the time this publishes – I wrote about two deaths, my cousin who was about a year older than I am and my friend Mike Dorman – from high school. Well, really I knew Dorman in eighth grade but whose keeping track? I thought specifically about the memorial service we had for Dorman here in Tampa.
More on that in a bit.
Through some of the comments I received I stated to think about the impact we have on the lives of people around us and most of us will never know that impact this side of Heaven.
And maybe that’s a good thing.
Photo from Find a Grave
It’s funny how something that happened more than six years ago can be mentioned and bring to mind a flood of raw emotion that I really thought I had dealt with. Turns out I did nothing more than bury the feelings so deep because I was not equipped to deal with them then.
I am not 100% sure I am right now, either.
The anger, frustration and sadness, I felt in 2007 was at times overwhelming. The complete futility I felt at the news of my cousin’s death was only compounded a couple months later when I learned of the death of a high school friend.
Photo by: pol sifter
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Phil 3:13-14 KJV).
I am working through a month long challenge wherein nearly 1700 people have committed to writing at least 500 words a day. Every day we’re given a writing prompt; some use it some do not – it is not part of the challenge to write what we’re told to write just that we write.
Photo By: ndboy (Creative Commons)
Colossians 3:23-24
How many times have you read that verse and applied it to your J-O-B?
1? 10? 50? 100?
If you’re like me, you’ve probably done it more times than you care to remember. And the truth is, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that application.
After last night’s NFC Championship game between the Seattle Seahawks and the San Francisco 49ers– a really good game I thought – an outburst by a member of the Seattle squad, Richard Sherman, really ruined the moment for the Seahawks and started – at least one – Face Book debate about Sherman’s behavior and it was made to be about race almost immediately.
For the record – and I said this on FB last night – I don’t care that he exclaimed that he was the best corner back in the league. I think you MUST think that about yourself to make it – in the NFL and life. If you question your skills, ability or value than others will too and that could easily come back to haunt you.
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BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH
On Writing, Ideas, and Making a Difference
Daily Thoughts and Meditations as we journey together with our Lord.
Mick Holt 