Needing some Light...

My view on the way to work early one morning.

I was up an on the road before sunrise and, lemme' tell you, it was dark outside.

Sort of like this week.

See, last Thursday we heard that friends of ours had lost their 11 year-old daughter to cancer after a three-year battle. Niki and I felt like we'd been punched in the gut when we heard. Then, the very next day, we heard that other friends of ours (our pastors during our early twenties) had lost their 15 year-old son to cancer after an eleven month battle.

Oh man.

The memorial service for the little girl was yesterday and it nearly did the wife and I in. I think it's mostly because our own sense of loss at our brother-in-laws sudden death just short of two years ago is still very close to the surface in our hearts.

The truth is, we're not 'better' yet, and these two most recent deaths have made that abundantly clear.

We need the sunrise...

T

Partytime...

The wife and one of her besties, right before the start of her birthday dance party.

That's right.

We're pastors and we party. Hard.

What I find interesting about being 'that guy' is that I wouldn't be that guy if it wasn't for the influence of my wife.

It's true.

I used to be a fairly stuck up, legalistic, religious guy. I sometimes shudder when thinking about what my life would have ended up like if I'd married within my subculture instead of marrying my wife, a girl who came from the totally opposite side of the tracks, in terms of her faith-experience.

She's really helped me.

T