If I could just do it once a week. No, not that, but this. If I could just find a few minutes to scribble on the keyboard to share a thought with all of you on a regular and consistent basis, perhaps I could call this blog project a success in ministry instead of a pain in the neck. Enough of that.
Vacation last week, and it was a grand time. But no ordinary vacation. Part of the gig was a memorial service for my father, Wayne Hotaling, dead last fall at the age of 70, from liver failure. Sad in too many ways.
So anyway, I met my up with all the family on the lake in the Adirondacks where we would spend our summers way back when. It was a great day, bluebird skies, old friends, lots of laughter and a bit of sadness. We scattered his ashes in the lake, probably breaking several laws, but the only fitting place for a man who spent the best days of his life in such a beautiful place.
Because I am the minister, I got to share a few thoughts with those that had gathered. About life, and the shortness of time, about my father's absence in my life and how I learned to deal with it. I chose the route of total honesty, with a large hand full of grace and forgiveness. The message came out alright, and I think it was helpful to some of my family that had been struggling with it all. But it sure was hard. Good, but hard to do.
It seems I think about him more now that he is dead than I ever did when he was living.
Life often brings us to these moments when we at last look into eyes we never wanted to stare into. They teach us things about ourself we really already knew but never wanted to admit. God is waiting for us there to make all things new.
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