Life...to the max!

...damn!

Sorry...

...really. Seriously.

I just get so angry at how the ugly "C" continues to attack anyone...let alone folks I so respect and enjoy. Cancer...a most dreaded word...has struck a fine friend...one of God's creative originals...as in, to the max!

But...this amazing, deep, edgy, alive man (most likely my favorite Eastern Orthodox Christ-follower...in truth, also one of my favorite radical Christ-followers of any stripe or hue) is recording this part of his journey on his blog. It is already well worth reading...and I would encourage you to encourage your friends to follow along in the coming days.

How do you get there?

Over to the right...here on my blog...head down to "From The Masculine Soul" and click on Sky Dimond. Prepare to be challenged, encouraged...blessed. That's my friend Sky.

What a sacred privilege to call him friend.

...what does your face look like?

Ever wonder what your face looks like when you are pondering something even just fairly deep? My wife (and I DO love her for this, among many, many other things...!) can some times be found to be laughing at me when I get lost in thought. Some times I'm just aware that she is looking at me and giggling at whatever I'm looking like. At other times she will break through the ponder and say, "Earth to Wes. Earth to Wes."

Well...what follows showed up in my email box this morning from my friend Don in North Carolina. Often, what he sends has me lost in ponder. Good stuff. But if my wife had walked in, I think I would have had one of "those faces."

...found:

...what I couldn't find for yesterday's post.......

* * * * * * *

Breathing.......

Inhale.

My life will be bookended
with an exhale
to match my first drawn breath.
A mated and unique pair
that shall never touch,
but depend upon each other
to exist.

Like God,
and faith.

Exhale.

...by Joshua Hughes Branson/1999

...a wondering heart:

Being gone for a number of days...then catching up...one is confronted with all kinds of things to pay attention to. This coming Wednesday evening I'll be sharing with one of the delightful couples in our lives, and a gaggle of their relatives, including a great grand mother, in the blessing and dedication (one of the nicer Baptist/conservative terms) of their three year old son.

Another couple we deeply love and enjoy is due for a brand new baby (their first) next weekend. Ahhh...the joys of the beginning and growthful development of creation...of life.

...the wisdom of Bruce:

"The big thing about the future is I'm not dead."

--Bruce Cockburn, *MT

We're back in the saddle...and holding on as we get caught up. We left reality...the Sabbath rest of these recent days...and are back trying our best to not ride the life-horse hard, yet, in the current realities of life.

A bit ago I laughed out loud here in my office as I thought about how Hunter Thompson's ashes must have felt being shot out of a huge cannon in Aspen last week. With the pending mail, emails, phone calls, appointments, and carving necessary space in time, I'm trying hard to not let re-entry light the fuse on the life-cannon that is always waiting to blow us into where we dont' want to go.

But...home, again, we are...with much to share as time allows. What a journey these past two weeks have been. Stay tuned...........

*musical theologian

...'til death parts us:

Somewhere in Proverbs in the Living Bible there is the thought expressed that we can go ahead and make our plans, but the final decision is up to God. That came roaring back into my mind yesterday when I received word that a friend had died in his sleep the night before here in Colorado.

In the previous post on this blog, as you may note, I wrote the following...

IF there is a significant life or death emergency with family or friends...Of CoUrSe, please use our cell phones to reach us...

...thus, a large chunk of yesterday was spent in CSprings with the now widow, Sandy, and her daughter, Rhonda, concerning the pending memorial service for their husband and father, Dan. They have asked my very good friend, Vance (who called me on my cell with the news), and me, to help them walk through this ugly surprise. This IS what one does for and with friends...in Jesus name.

Tomorrow our hopes and dreams were to begin 12 days of Sabbath rest. This holy interruption absolutely pales in comparison to the holy shattering of the hopes and dreams of Sandy and Rhonda.

You see, Dan became a brother in Christ at the end of just this past February, in part, as a result of conversations at a gathering of men in the mountains, and in larger part because of the incredible faithful witness of some his co-workers. There is a HUGE story here of redemption that would encourage your own soul.

Dan was a decorated Vietnam vet, even with a Purple Heart for a huge and serious wound he took on behalf of the turmoil he found himself in. In March my good bud, Vance, and I had the sacred privilege of baptising Dan and Sandy as they took steps forward into their new found faith. And now this...for only God knows the reasons.

Prayers will be appreciated...sincerely...for all concerned. This is no surprise to our Triune God...only to all of us.

Already we find our Triune God deep at work in all of us in this holy unexpected moment. I'll post more at the conclusion of our Sabbath journey.

Rest will come...in God's timing for us all. But for now I conclude with words from George McDonald I keep on the bulletin board at my desk...

If you knew what God knows about death, you would clap your listless hands.

...pending Sabbath rest:

These past several weeks have been more full than we could have imagined. We arrived home last evening from one more time away with very tired bodies, in a good way, deeply stirred minds and hearts, and souls experiencing both anticipation and a rest that only our God can provide.

The sincere blessings of much hard travel; outlandish beauty in some parts of creation; very important connection and reconnection with friends new and old; profound moments of life-change in some, sorrow for others who choose paths which will further suck the life out of them; a wedding in the land of Dorothy and Toto where the exchange of rings was a more holy moment than any of us expected; finding and experiencing our Triune God in some ways that still leave me shaking my head in wonder…this has been some of our varied and intense journey since the last post.

At sunrise on this Monday morning here in Colorado I find my soul repeating over and over and over again…indeed, praise be to God!

And now…there are four days to go until we begin a very intentional Sabbath rest…….