I remember in the summer of 1990 I was on the way to Colorado to do some backpacking with my cousin and my uncle as was our tradition in the summers; we stopped to get some supplies at Wal-Mart and my cousin and I went nuts with our spending money. To make a long story shorter, I remember buying the tape single for LL Cool J, "Mama Said Knock You Out" which is the inspiration for this post as the opening line of LL's song (that's right we are on first initials basis) is "don't call it a comeback..." I will pause a minute before I get back to my point as I know many of you are still singing the rest of the line in your head....ok good. Anyway, Don't call it an update is the title for this post b/c it has been almost 2 months since I posted anything.
First things first, Jack is doing really well, his ears are so much better as is his balance which is a plus for the rest of his body which was daily getting bumped and bruised because of what we now believe was the amount of fluid in his ears. I can only laugh about it now because I feel terrible that my poor little buddy would "bonk" into things almost daily as if someone had slipped something into his drink....Uncle Dave....just kidding. We are daily amazed at how well Jack is formulating words and making us laugh with his sense of humor, timing, and silliness. I have no idea where he would have gotten such antics.
Kate turns 10 months tomorrow and continues to be the sweetest and easiest of our babies. She is so loved by her brothers and pretty spoiled by her parents. She is "crawling" which looks more like as Tamara has coined it a prayer scoot. She puts her hands together and pulls her legs around wherever she needs to go but she is mobile.
This has been an incredibly busy summer for our family. I am taking 2 summer classes through seminary which has been challenging as I am taking Elementary Greek and a Leadership class. The Leadership class has been really good reminding me of what is required of me as a leader and challenging me to continue to refine my character daily for the glory of God. Greek, cue the sad song, is the hardest class I have ever taken in my life, but enough of that talk.
On a more serious note, we got one of those phone calls no one wants to get last Saturday, a good friend of mine called to inform us that another of my former students was killed in a tragic automobile accident. She (Rachel) was about to start her sophomore year at the U of A and her brother (Kyle) is going to be a senior. Their family is very close to one another and I have been close with them since having all three of their children in the ministry I used to lead in NLR. Two of the pastors, real pastors Ginny, were out of town so the family thought of me and asked me if I would do the funeral. I didn't hesitate, so we packed up the car and headed for NLR on Sunday afternoon. I won't say too much else about the funeral for time sake but I will tell you a couple of things I learned.
1. The family had an amazing perspective on the loss of thier youngest child and little sister, believing the Lord is going to use this for His glory as others decide to trust Christ with their lives as Rachel did.
2. God provided me with the strength to proclaim the Gospel at this funeral, I am an all or nothing type guy so I was concerned that my emotions might make it difficult for me to make it through the service. However God used those emotions to proclaim His truth and for that I am and have been grateful.
3. I realized again how short life is and how we have a responsibility to live each day as if it is our last never knowing and prayerfully never fearing when the Lord will call us Heavenward where He is preparing a place for His children...for me.
4. This funeral has made me realize that God has gifted each of us and that we must use our gifts to glorify Him. The purpose of our spiritual gifts, for those who are in Christ, is to glorify Him.
5. Tell those you love that you love them regularly, don't assume they know or don't need to hear it. Thankfully the last conversation Rachel and her dad had prior to her accident ended on both sides with I love you.
Those are a few things that I have realized over these past few days in LR. I was blessed to have been asked to do this funeral and thankful to God all over again for speaking through me and not having to rely on my abilities.
I of course have a Cooper story related to the morning I was getting ready to go the church for the funeral service. Oddly enough, the suit (singular) I have I purchased for another one of my former students that died in an accident several years ago is a little big on me now as I have lost some weight in the last year or 2. Anyway I had to buy some suspenders to keep my "britches" up. I came out after getting dressed, I had on my suit pants, dress shirt, tie, and my suspenders. Cooper, my little encourager, says, "you look nice Daddy." I thanked him for being sweet and then he said, "I like your farmer things!" in reference to my suspenders. God knew that in a moment when my heart was heavy I could use something to make me laugh and be grateful for my children.
I pray I never have to experience the loss of a child, but if I do I pray that I would have the perspective that God would be glorified even in that the most horrible of circumstances. God willfully gave up Christ, his Child, to ransom His children from the pit of sin and death, so maybe the lesson God wants me to learn is simply, I need to love Him even more than I love my children. I know that needs to be true but it is times like these that I need to be reminded that the only thing I am promised in my life with Christ is life with Christ....everything else is icing on the cake so to speak. May God receive all the glory and honor forever and ever, Amen
