Just got word from my sister last night that Dad (who lives back east, as does the rest of my family) is in the hospital. At first they thought it might be a bad case of the flu or stomach/intestinal virus. Word this morning is that there is some sort of blockage. No further details as of yet. He's on the edge of 82, is not in the best of health (given his past medical history), and has been heartbroken ever since Mom passed away five and a half years ago.
As I drove into work this morning it hit me that - in a very, very surreal way - several significant factors in my life right now have combined in such a way as to make me relive 1996 all over again. It's as though the months of September through December of eleven years ago are re-imprinting themselves onto my current life. The timeframe, the situations, the minutia of details, and all the emotions connected to everything. Just so, so very surreal.
I simply ask for some prayers for my Dad's health.
I also humbly ask for prayers for myself. I've come a long way in these last dozen years. I've grown and matured as a man and as a child of God. It seems, though, that God wants me to grow and learn some more - at least in one particular aspect of my life. To take an emotional risk. To go further down a certain path of opportunity and to see it through, whether it's only meant to be for the short-term or whether it's meant to be longer lasting. And to challenge others to do the same.
My apologies for being cryptic. I just re-read that last paragraph. Although it sounds like I'm talking about my relationship with my Dad, I'm not. That relationship is stronger than it's ever been. So has our faith in God and Jesus Christ. Oddly, though, in recent years we've shared a similar struggle. Both of us have been dealing with a void in our lives. He having lost his soulmate of 50+ years. And I... well... given that I'm still single, that void has been there since day one for me.
God puts you on a path, and you walk it. And maybe some of the choices you made weren't the best. Maybe some decisions were right because the time, the person, or the situation wasn't right. Or maybe you only went so far and then stopped and changed course out of fear. But sometimes, though, God allows you a do-over. Some of the details have changed, some of the specifics are altered. But enough similarities are there to jog your memory. And you're flashed back to a time when you gave up to easily. You've grown since then. So now God says to you, "Okay, what are you going to do this time?"
What do you do?
You risk your heart.
Even if you don't get someone elses heart in return.
You risk your heart.
Because one day that someone will be found.
You risk your heart.
Because that is what Christ did, and does, for all of us... for all eternity.
Because, eventually, God does keep his promises.
On His time, not ours.
But we still have to do our part.
1 comment:
Even if He does, it may be too late.
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