PREFACE
to AFTER THE STORM
72 is the new 47. I have a
difficult time grasping the speed with which the last 25 years have passed.
By God’s grace, I have lived a
full life; fuller than most perhaps. But it hasn’t always been easy. If I were
to be totally honest, the last 25+ years have been tough. Yes, the years, while
filled with a lot of blessing, grace and joy, have also brought plenty of
heartaches, losses, and challenges. No one is immune; least of all me.
For those who may not have read
our first book, may I take this opportunity to briefly tell you the occasion
that prompted Judy and I to co-write “THROUGH STORMY WATERS: God’s Peace
in Life’s Storms.” That book was
a labor of love and I do mean labor. We quickly learned how difficult it is to
write with interest, honesty, creativity, and good grammar. We grew to
appreciate those amazing people who seem to crank out books on a regular basis.
Our book was a labor because we were trying to do it while working full time
jobs that demanded more than an average amount of time and stress. Judy was an
elementary school teacher; I was a pastor.
Writing it was a labor of love.
When we finally decided we needed to do something with this tale, re realized
that we would have to just go away someplace free of busy distractions. We were
fortunate enough to own a boat with separate spaces where we could each take
our laptops and write our pre-assigned chapters. And so, in 2006, we boarded
“Providence” and tied up at the docks in a secluded marina in south Puget
Sound. We told the story of my life-changing accident in an alternating style
that allowed us to tell the story from both our perspectives. Doing so further
reinforced the reality that the promise to love each other “in sickness and in
health” we had spoken to each other 25 year earlier, though severely tested, was
still true.
This was our story (and we’re sticking to it)!
In the late spring
of 1997, I was run over by a bus. Yes, you read that right. I literally was hit
by our church bus and then dragged underneath and scraped across the graveled
unimproved part of our church parking lot for nearly 40 feet. While this grinding,
crushing, scraping nightmare was occurring, it seemed like an eternity. In
reality, as with most accidents it all happened in a matter of a minute or two.
When the grinding, bumping, scraping finally stopped, I was left face down on
the concrete basketball court, unable to move. Period. Nothing. Arms. Legs,
hands, feet, all numb and immovable. I had the realization that I was paralyzed and may never walk again. I also worried that
I might not see Judy or our daughters Kresta and Melissa ever again.
14 weeks later, when I was
wheeled out of Rio Vista Rehabilitation Hospital in El Paso, life had been
altered forever. My life. Judy’s life. Our family’s life. The church I had
served for 14 years (Northminster Presbyterian Church in Las Cruces, NM) had
been forever impacted and altered. The church to which I had just accepted a
call to serve (Calvary Presbyterian Church in Enumclaw, WA) had also been
affected The leadership and Pastor Search Committee had to rethink and alter
their plans to accommodate my convalescence and recovery. Like ripples in a
pond after a stone has been thrown, I didn’t know if I could even begin to
calculate how far those ripples may have extended. We were to soon find out.
One of the chapters in our first
book was headed by this quote: Life Happens When You Have made Other Plans.”
That is exactly what happened to
us: LIFE. And so, even though this accident occurred in 1997,
life happened and we were living a “new normal.” In the back of our minds, however, we were
inescapably convinced that something greater had to come from our experience.
A friend and colleague who had
visited me in the hospital had written this verse from Psalm 118:10 on a card
as his prayer, as a promise, a challenge: “You will not die but will
surely live and proclaim what the Lord has done.”
Sharing what the Lord had done
for us. That was our sincere intent. That was our plan. We knew we had to tell
this story. Then life happened. Our daughters got married. Grandsons came along.
Cameron, our first-born grand was still-born in 1999. Sam and Davis came along
in the year 2000. My mother died in 1999 as well. My older sister Barbara died
in 2002. Joseph was adopted and brought home from the hospital in 2005.Life was
happening. We were busy and active. Writing
took a back seat. Both Judy and I had vivid, if different memories, lots of
notes, and disabilities to keep the story always in our minds.
It wasn’t until 2006 that we
actually took time to sit and write a complete manuscript. But the original
chronicle stalled for lack of a publisher and some honest but helpful critique.
It wasn’t until 2013 that a friend with a small publishing company in
Washington encouraged us to finish the book and get it “out there.” We did. We let out a huge, collective sigh. It
was finally in print!
There it was - a labor born of
love; an insatiable love as a married couple; love of immediate family; of
friends and support of our church family. The body of Christ. God with Skin.
As a bald-face promotion of our
earlier book, (“Through Stormy Waters: Experiencing God’s Peace in Life’s
Storms”) I invite you to read it in order to understand the full story. It is
the context for what you are about to read.
In 1974, we were living in Bellevue,
Washington when we attended Bill Gothard’s Institute in Basic Youth Conflicts.
I found that I gleaned very little from the conference. However, one thing
stands out. They gave each person attending a button that was emblazoned with
the letters PBPWMGINFWMY (Please be patient with me. God is not finished with
me yet).
In my years in ministry, I have
done street ministry on the streets of Chicago. I have done campus ministry. I
have worked with church youth groups. I led high adventure hikes, long distance
bicycle trips, and taken mission groups to serve in some of the most difficult
places. I have served 3 churches in an
ordained capacity and as a retired pastor I have volunteered and served in at
least three others. Have had to deal
with critics and “irregular” people – or as Rick Warren described such people
“EGRs” meaning extra grace required.
Sometimes, I felt that leading church
people could best be described as “herding cats.” It takes patience and, admittedly,
my patience was often worn thin. To my shame, I didn’t show others as much
grace and patience as I expected in return.
The Apostle Paul lists patience
as one part of the undeniable Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-24)and as
part of the new nature we as Jesus followers are asked to wear like a garment
(Colossians 3:12-14).
I am first to admit that I would
not be described by people who know me as being a patient person. And, since my
accident, I find that I am becoming increasingly impatient.
I
can freely admit that GOD IS NOT FINISHED WITH ME YET.
And so, I need patience.
I have often asked people to be
patient with me. At times, they have offered grace, patience and forgiveness
even when I have not sought it out. It is a deeply humbling process of
receiving extended grace and patience from others. The most impatient person
with what has happened, who I am, and what I hope to become in the unknown
future, is me. I can be pretty hard on myself. Judy is really good about
reminding me I need to be patient and forgiving with myself
When I had been run over and
deposited broken, bruised and critically ill, I was sure God was finished with
me. But God still had more life for me to live; more ministry to accomplish,
and more opportunities to declare what the Lord had done for me. In the ensuing
years since 1997, I have had to learn to set aside my impatience and live into
that truth.
How has this been working out for
me? Well, that is the topic of this biographical sequel to “THROUGH STORMY
WATERS.”
To paraphrase the news commentator
Paul Harvey, “Now the rest of the story.”
