A decade in the making

Ten years is such a short time in a long life. Until you examine it a bit more closely.

Ten years ago, my mother was alive, and I really didn't think much about her not being that way. She's been gone almost seven years now.

Ten years ago, my oldest daughter was happily married, and we had one grand child. My daughter lost her husband more than six years ago in a tragedy that affects us still. We've had four grand children added to the mix in just this one decade.

Ten years ago Hurricane Katrina had not happened, the singular most changing event in our lives. That witch of a storm sent us away from our children and grand children and we're just now getting that back.

Ten years ago, I was an aging sports writer and part-time minister. Now I'm an aging minister and unpaid blogger.

Heck, ten years ago Marvel hadn't made a movie yet.

And ten years ago, we gained a daughter-in-law.

Last night we celebrated that fact, wonderfully. We restated vows, watched videos, hugged it out.

It was wonderful. But I want to make one other observation. My son, Jason, and I have lived some of the same life, it seems. We both struggled with substances, both struggled to find who we were at times.

And both of us, through miracles of God himself, are serving God. To hear the Lord's name mentioned so many times in Jason and Becky's pastor's message, to hear Jason call himself a Godly man, to hear myself talk about Jesus' work at Cana of Galilee, truly these things are signs that God's grace is so wonderful and so encompassing.

I am only what God allows me to be. I often seem to be what He doesn't desire me to be, however. He is my guide, my King, my redeemer, my Savior and his work has granted both me and my son the forgiveness that the world can not give.

Ten years is a life, it seems to me. Ten years changed everything. It happened to be these 10 years. Ten years that changed my occupation. Ten years that grew a ministry. Ten years that grew a singing/song writing career with four albums under his belt. Ten years that grew children like stalks of corn. Ten years that moved us four times. Ten years that brought me faithful dogs and loving cats. Ten years that brought darn near everything.

Look, some of my favorite times have come in a decade-like long time, if you know what I mean. Ten years seems so very long sometimes, and the fact that in 10 years I might not even be here, and certainly I'll be whatever retired is does strike me with fear. Ten years, for me, is a lifetime.

But it has always been. I played baseball from eight to 18, softball from 23 to 33. I was a sports editor in Jackson, Miss., for 10 years.

Life has roared at me like a freight train, and it will continue.

But through it all, through the ups and the inevitable downs, He has gone ahead of me, ahead of us. He is there, and though I fail him most days, and I suspect I'll never be all He could make me if I but get out of the way.

But He knows my heart. And inside me lies the desire to bring people to him. What I have realized, and was reminded last night, is that ultimately He brings those people to him. That's His job. It has never been mine. I merely help in small ways.

Perhaps a decade at a time.