The Road Taken

It should come as no surprise that I think about my beloved wife a lot during the course of the day.  We literally grew up together from our teenage years into the beginning of our senior citizen days.  That’s a long time… that’s a lot of experiences!
   
It’s no wonder that I have to fight off being sad at times, when I look at a picture on the wall that brings back a poignant memory of a special time together or suddenly burst out laughing as I’ll recall one of her spontaneous, quick and funny comments to something I may have said or done.  Then there are the very tough remembrances of how emaciated and weak she looked while struggling to breathe with the assistance of the oxygen tanks at the head of the bed during that awful last week of her life, that almost always brings me to tears.

But what I continue to hold near and dear to my heart though, is a comment my former neighbor back in North Carolina told me in reference to a similar conversation we were having a month or two after Piper’s homegoing.  This was the same gal who would come over every so often during our almost four years in our house in Fuquay-Varina and simply sit and talk with a mostly unresponsive Piper while combing her hair, rubbing her shoulders or just holding her hand.  She knew our story, she had firsthand experience of the presence of the Lord that emanated from Piper and she knew how special Piper was to me.

She turned to me that day and said, but you’ve got to remember that all those memories of your life together are good memories… very good memories!  I am still not sure why that comment meant and continues to mean so much to me today, but she was exactly correct.  When I look back at the road taken by us, I have very few, if any complaints.  As I write on the book of Piper’s story, I am seeing that we chose a particular road of simple faith in God and His Word that we never deviated from, beginning in the early 1970’s and going on until our last days together in September of 2018.

Did we do it all without flaw? NO WAY!  We made lots of mistakes along the way.  I can see some important decisions that we made way too haphazardly and others that we…  mainly me… took too long to make and the decision was negatively made for us by the adverse situation at hand.  I realized how a few seasons of being just too busy ended with a surprise as negative events that we should have been more aware of and taken action on, snuck up and bit us on the backside!  But I can also see how God at many times, miraculously swooped in when we got our eyes fully focused back on Him and His word and turned the situation around in our favor.

Ephesians 1:7-9 declares: “God forgives our failures because of his overflowing kindness (or grace).  He poured out his kindness by giving us every kind of wisdom and insight when he revealed the mystery of his plan to us…” (God’s Word ©)  What we did do right, I believe, was to learn of the power of His overflowing grace toward those of us who actively believe in the simple truth of His Word… that what He says… He WILL DO!

So yeah, the memories are “very good memories!”  We loved, we learned, had a lot of fun and touched a few lives along the way!  Would I change things if I could?  Probably not! The good times, the mistakes, the successes and the failures, all combined to make the Jim and Piper story what it became!  It defined us and the legacy we leave behind!  Our kids learned a lot of positive things from us (I hope!), but they also learned how NOT to do a lot of things!  Isn’t that what life is all about?  Live and learn and then move on!

I believe that this was one thing that we did do well.  We tended to learn from both the good and the not so good activities of life.  To get up when knocked down, brush ourselves off, learn from our mistakes and then keep going forward!  And that is exactly what I am attempting to do now!  I may not have too clear of an idea of what or where this new road is taking me… but I choose life and therefore I choose to move ahead!  All I need to do is to keep my focus on Him and His Word because He is the only one who knows where I am to go!

Have a great rest of the week as you walk the roads of life that you are called and/or led to take… and as you do, say along with me… “I am expecting to let God and His Word be my roadmap along the road taken today!”