Sunday, January 4, 2009
A Melancholy Day

Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
Hebrews 13:8 KJV

I spent a wonderful holiday break just being with my remaining children who have not left the nest and playing with them. So much has transpired during that break. Had a wonderful NOP in OKC which I led jointly with a young man I mentored when he was just a young teenager – Stephen Hinkle. He made me proud. Drove to St. Louis to spend a day with my daughter Glory and her husband, Shaun. My daughter Hannah became engaged to a wonderful Aussie man named Ashley Brown. All of those things are good and wonderful…but I feel like time has passed by so quickly. The break ended with me leaving home to minister for a week…so I sit here in my hotel room in Nashville missing my wife and my children and wondering where the time has gone…yet rejoicing in the fact that my wife is so faithful and that my children are all mature and independent. My melancholy is not a depression but rather a deep emotional nostalgia about all the good things I have witnessed and experienced as my children have grown up. They will always be my children and I rejoice in their lives well lived. Such feelings make me very, very grateful.