18 years ago, after 24 hours of labor you came, 3 weeks early and yet weighing in at 8.5 pounds. By your first birthday you weighed over 32 pounds. You were so fat, you did not walk, crawl or roll over until you were almost 18 months old.
You made the decision not to wear diapers anymore and that was that. No accidents either.
I watched you run down the beach when you were 4 and you just kept running and running and very fast. Now you are an ALL-State runner.
I remember you mightily struggling in school, and yet with determination and grit you pulled through and now you take IB and AP classes.
You have always been a charmer.
You drive your mother and your sister crazy.
However, you get grace. It takes a big sinner to need a big Gospel.
I am so proud of you. It thrills me to see the man you are growing into.
Happy Birthday! Guy-Baby!
Friday, May 27, 2011
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Big Milt
For the first 15 years of my Dad's working life, he worked as a steel rigger, riveter, and welder. He worked on bridges, malls, power plants, refineries and large office buildings. For a large part of that time, he worked with and around asbestos. In fact he remembers cutting pieces of it to rest his head on while he ate his lunch.
My impression is that the companies he worked for knew the dangers of this material since some time in the Twenties. However, he worked most of this time without a hard hat or ear plugs ( he is essentially deaf today). So of course there would be little concern for the guys who were exposed profoundly to asbestos.
All the guys my Dad worked with have asbestosis, mesothelioma or reside in a coffin. The smokers are long dead.
My Grandfather died in 1968 from complications from stuff he inhaled drilling a railroad tunnel in West Virginia in the Thirties, so my family is not new to this. Whatever he was exposed to killed my Grandmother, possibly as she breathed it in as well, hand-washing his clothes. All of my uncles on both my Mom and Dad's side who worked construction have been struck by this disease. Only one Uncle remains and my Dad.
Fortunately, several years ago an attorney in Salisbury, North Carolina kept running into these old construction workers who were dropping like flies from asbestos -related diseases. She went to work for them. My Dad received a settlement but more importantly, he received a little yellow card that covers all of his medical care, if he ever develops full-blown Asbestosis. For years he has gone for a scan, that showed a band of material in his lungs but, it was not active. He has not needed the card.
Well, he needs it now.
Every morning he wakes up and coughs. Once he has coughed up about a cup full of fluid, he is ready to face the day. He still loves life, works in his garden, participates fully in the life of his Church, speculates on real estate and complains bitterly about the state of politics in America. He loves his grandchildren very much. He is still pretty hot for my Mom as well. He will go again next week to see his pulmonologist.
At Christmas, he asked my brother and I to speak at his memorial service, my brother to give the eulogy and of course, for me to preach.
It could and should be quite some time before I have to prep that sermon. My Mom seems nervous, but wise enough to let him do what he wants to do.
I write this today to help process what is going on in my heart. I am a free-market capitalist and I tend to be a libertarian. However, failure to act on behalf of one's workers is a very bad thing. I can't help but wish for the bosses to have cough up a lung everyday for the rest of eternity.
My Dad is still quite the jolly fellow and handles this stuff much better than I do. He believes (rightly) that heaven will be a big reunion and that Jesus will see him safely to that reunion.
Pray for us.
My impression is that the companies he worked for knew the dangers of this material since some time in the Twenties. However, he worked most of this time without a hard hat or ear plugs ( he is essentially deaf today). So of course there would be little concern for the guys who were exposed profoundly to asbestos.
All the guys my Dad worked with have asbestosis, mesothelioma or reside in a coffin. The smokers are long dead.
My Grandfather died in 1968 from complications from stuff he inhaled drilling a railroad tunnel in West Virginia in the Thirties, so my family is not new to this. Whatever he was exposed to killed my Grandmother, possibly as she breathed it in as well, hand-washing his clothes. All of my uncles on both my Mom and Dad's side who worked construction have been struck by this disease. Only one Uncle remains and my Dad.
Fortunately, several years ago an attorney in Salisbury, North Carolina kept running into these old construction workers who were dropping like flies from asbestos -related diseases. She went to work for them. My Dad received a settlement but more importantly, he received a little yellow card that covers all of his medical care, if he ever develops full-blown Asbestosis. For years he has gone for a scan, that showed a band of material in his lungs but, it was not active. He has not needed the card.
Well, he needs it now.
Every morning he wakes up and coughs. Once he has coughed up about a cup full of fluid, he is ready to face the day. He still loves life, works in his garden, participates fully in the life of his Church, speculates on real estate and complains bitterly about the state of politics in America. He loves his grandchildren very much. He is still pretty hot for my Mom as well. He will go again next week to see his pulmonologist.
At Christmas, he asked my brother and I to speak at his memorial service, my brother to give the eulogy and of course, for me to preach.
It could and should be quite some time before I have to prep that sermon. My Mom seems nervous, but wise enough to let him do what he wants to do.
I write this today to help process what is going on in my heart. I am a free-market capitalist and I tend to be a libertarian. However, failure to act on behalf of one's workers is a very bad thing. I can't help but wish for the bosses to have cough up a lung everyday for the rest of eternity.
My Dad is still quite the jolly fellow and handles this stuff much better than I do. He believes (rightly) that heaven will be a big reunion and that Jesus will see him safely to that reunion.
Pray for us.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Pollen
The glory of the LORD shall cover the earth as the pollen coats everything! Hope it is not as yellow and allergenic.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Gardens and Trees
We began in a garden.
We sinned first in a garden.
It had to do with a tree.
Jesus did battle in a garden and won.
Jesus hung on a tree.
His tomb was in a garden.
In the middle of our eternal city there is a garden with a tree with leaves that heal the nations.
"O all ye who pass by, behold and see:
Man stole the fruit, but I must climb the tree;
The tree of life to all, but only me:
Was ever grief like mine?"
George Herbert
We sinned first in a garden.
It had to do with a tree.
Jesus did battle in a garden and won.
Jesus hung on a tree.
His tomb was in a garden.
In the middle of our eternal city there is a garden with a tree with leaves that heal the nations.
"O all ye who pass by, behold and see:
Man stole the fruit, but I must climb the tree;
The tree of life to all, but only me:
Was ever grief like mine?"
George Herbert
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Notification of Actual Payer
So
When I send Tate money or pay on his account at Virginia Tech, I get this hilarious email called "Notification of Actual Payer".
As if there would/could be a 'fake' payer.
Yes, I am the actual payer. I paid it, I watched my bank account dwindle by the 'actual' amount. Honestly, I did not really need to know, I already knew it.
Jesus, the actual payer for me, 'knows' what it cost.
When I send Tate money or pay on his account at Virginia Tech, I get this hilarious email called "Notification of Actual Payer".
As if there would/could be a 'fake' payer.
Yes, I am the actual payer. I paid it, I watched my bank account dwindle by the 'actual' amount. Honestly, I did not really need to know, I already knew it.
Jesus, the actual payer for me, 'knows' what it cost.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Hope
"There are still so many things I don't know. If a drowned man can awaken, then I believe a broken man can heal."
That is a quote from "The Shipping News" after a fisherman presumed dead at his own wake, 'wakes up'. The protagonist believes that if a man can come back from the dead, he can come back from incredible suffering and loss.
The resurrection means more than we get to beat death. It means that that the Kingdom of God is already inaugurated and the reversal of the curse over the whole of creation has begun. All that is the result of the Fall is being destroyed.
All that is sad is becoming untrue.
That is a quote from "The Shipping News" after a fisherman presumed dead at his own wake, 'wakes up'. The protagonist believes that if a man can come back from the dead, he can come back from incredible suffering and loss.
The resurrection means more than we get to beat death. It means that that the Kingdom of God is already inaugurated and the reversal of the curse over the whole of creation has begun. All that is the result of the Fall is being destroyed.
All that is sad is becoming untrue.
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