Like many, this time of year always leaves me with the feeling of "is that all there is?" I've kinda been holding a pity party. I know the meaning of the season, and rejoice in the Christmas message. Still, at the end of the day I've a hollow feeling.
A lot of it is because of health problems. I've been fighting for almost two years to save my foot. I damaged it badly playing football in High School then trying to play in College. A couple of years ago it came back to haunt me. 15 surgeries in the past two years and I still only have a 50% chance of keeping it. I'm tired of doctor's and I'm tired of hospitals. I'm tired of trying to keep my foot above my heart 24 hours a day. I'm tired of so many things that sometimes I wish it all would just end. I thought of this poem and went back through some old notes and writings to find it. I found it and realized, once again, just how fortunate and blessed I've been in life. It's neither a philosophical or political statement, It just celebrates another time and another place in my life where we fought a battle, my wife and I, and we won.
I hope you find this a blessing,
A Somewhat Crumpled and Crippled Christian,
Beth
No more the babies and families cry out
No more the soul ripped cry
A child, a baby, his life in doubt
The Doctor's say he should die
His brains compressed, he'll never live
A life like you or I
He'll never be able even to count
Why let him live to try?
His parents rejected that sage advice
And promised God they would stand
And help their helpless unborn child
To grow into God's true man
Abortion rejected, his life confirmed
He parents savoring life
And Michael rejected by arrogant man
Flourished and embraced his life
And so to the course that life demands
He runs within God's grace
Rejecting the failure the Doctor's had planned
He's Locked in Love's embrace.
For those who wonder, my son Michael and his fiance sent us a Christmas card today. Maybe that's why I thought of this. Mike's a 3.75 gpa sophomore in college, while working as the manager of a gas station on Camp Pendleton.
He's still my hero.
Comments
A wonderful tribute
to your son. This is written with the heartfelt love, and pride of a parent. Thank you for sharing this.
Be strong, because it is in our strength that we can heal.
Love & Hugs,
Barbara
"With confidence and forbearance, we will have the strength to move forward."
Love & hugs,
Barbara
"If I have to be this girl in me, Then I have the right to be."
Beth The Poem Tells A
Simple fact that where there is LIFE there is HOPE. I respect those parents willing to give birth to children that are born with deformities. THAT takes a very special LOVE.
May Your Light Forever Shine
May Your Light Forever Shine
Thank you for
sharing that with us. I very much admire your dedication to life.
Deni