note: The following is a post by preachin' don't pay's first guest blogger, Matthew Anderson. Matthew visited the preacher and his family last week for a few days. Much whiskey was reviewed.
Since Joel lost the cord for his camera, I’ll attempt a word picture.
Most of my time spent with Joel in the past included discussions regarding religion, politics, and general life experience. Our skeptical attitudes toward the previous list included criticism and sarcasm mostly, occasionally we would offer a solution or two. In one sense we are good for each other, it’s nice to know someone like you, especially since that someone knows you are full of male bovine fecal material. In another sense, we were precarious. We ran rough-shod over most topics because we knew just enough to make us dangerous. Our buddy Josh kept us on the straight and narrow.
Joel and I have both married (married up I might add), we’ve both done some extra education, and both moved into a career since we met. Joel has added two beautiful children, I await that blessing. This was the first trip to see Joel in a number of years, the first time seeing his children. We still talk about politics and religion as a hopeless mess twisted beyond recognition and the perils of life, but our discussions are different.
Here’s the picture-its not the same as before. Today, my buddy Joel likes people to think, he likes to agitate for the sake of critical thinking and irritate to challenge firmly held opinion. He holds his opinions loosely and compares them to others with interest. His thoughts about life are more informed, I guess that comes with just being around longer. For Joel, life has become precious, too precious to live half-gluteus maxima. Thanks to his wife and wonderful children, Joel sees life with fresh eyes. He sees a reason to discuss the details, motivations, and agendas in politics, his children bring the future into view. Joel has a renewed sense of the importance of a right view of God because he, along with his wife, will teach their children. Life has become different because Joel has been entrusted with life. The picture of my friend has changed. I’m not talking about the size of his physique, its Joel singing the “clean-up” song with his daughter that has changed. It’s a pleasant picture, one that includes a beautiful wife, curly haired daughter, and chubby-cheeked son. Life is precious.
JB is my friend. We missed you Josh.
1 comment:
Believe me...I can shoot my straight-and-narrow-arrow from a few thousand miles away. I guess the longer I live around, spend time and go to church with the Southern Baptist, that arrow has more and more reach. I was worried leaving you two to your own devices without me around, for sure. The two of you alone with 2 full bottles of wiskey is like the perfect storm of skepticism and sarcasm coming together to create a black hole vacuum to suck the life out of all that is around. I missed you guys last week, knowing the fun that you were having, even without any Taco Time's around. But I missed most of all the richness of the conversations that I knew were taking place, wiskey or no wiskey. True, deep, and lasting friendship, heaven-like friendship, a man can only hope to experience that during a lifetime...luckily, I get it twice-over. Enough of the sap, back to the real world. Hudson is back in the hospital as of Monday with a variety of problems, mainly upper respiratory problems right now. He has a tendacy to stop breathing or have trouble breathing deeply. They tell me that's not good. Please pray.
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