My job is busy in the fall.  It’s almost like ministry New Year or Mardi Gras or something equally busy but slightly less festive.  Add in a couple of family events and one giant ALS event, multiply by my lack of organization and divide by 17 and the final answer will be:  too busy to blog.  Seriously, I’ve missed writing my thoughts out here in this little piece of the interweb and I’m still not sure when I can get back to overloading you with every little detail of my life.  It will happen though.  Oh, believe me, it will happen.

Until then, I just wanted to say: we are well.  We are in a sort of “middle patch” I think.

Have you ever been in the middle?

Not the beginning, not the end.  Not the worst, not the best.  Not the fastest, not the slowest.

Just…the middle.

We’ve done some of the hard work of adapting to this new normal and I’m proud of us because it’s honestly the hardest work this family of mine has ever tackled.  We’ve gotten some awesome things done with our kids and I’m so proud of God for that…there’s no way we could have accomplished a single bit of it on our own.

Steve is learning how to respect the demands of his body’s condition, while also devoting himself to the call of God on his spirit.  His spirit is not shrinking, not retreating, not defeated and not silenced.  Not by a long shot.  To say that I’m proud of him wouldn’t even scratch the surface of what I feel for that man.  Recently, he spoke to our interns at Westside and said a sentence I will never forget for as long as I live:  “I’m learning to live in the tension of rapidly increasing physical limitations and rapidly increasing spiritual freedom.”  Read it again.  I’ll wait.

I wonder:  are you currently living with any limitations?  Does it sometimes feel like those limitations are pulling the walls in around your life, your joy, your purpose?  Maybe this is your chance to borrow Steve’s sentence for yourself and ask our generous God to show you the quickest route to increasing spiritual freedom.

That’s all I’ve got today – but I have a lot stored up to tell you later on this week.  Some exciting news and some almost-exciting news. Heh.  Thanks for sticking with me and this blog through the up’s and down’s and in’s and out’s and jump’s and spin’s of life.  I’m blessed to be any little part of your day.

Bo

8 Comments

  1. Glad you are back… I have missed your thoughts.. but i do know it has a been a crazy few weeks for alot of people.. Bless you Bo…

  2. Always good to hear from you! Love that sentence of Steve’s. Thanks for all you do and share of your life! Can’t wait to hear your exciting news =)

  3. Ah. the middle, I’ve been calling it limbo and finally this past weekend decided it’s only limbo if I choose to let it be. I’m done choosing limbo. I miss my Westside days I feel like reading your blog brings me back there. So thanks!

  4. Wow, if that’s all I’d heard today it would be enough.

    I just read the whole blog to Dan…and with your permission, we may both get that sentence tattooed on the inside of our eyelids. 😉

    The Belles LOVE Team Stern!

  5. Yum.

  6. Thanks for the good word! I’m going to do that – ask God to show me the quickest route to increasing spiritual freedom.
    Steve truly is an incredible inspiration.

    • Mat 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.,/I>

      I will use the sentence as a paraphrase of this verse…

      “I’m learning to live in the tension of rapidly increasing physical limitations and rapidly increasing spiritual freedom.”

      Isn’t this true in some aspects, as we grow older (and hopefully wiser) and our bodies, no matter what ailment we have conflict with, that when we seek God first we do ” learn to live in the tension of rapidly increasing physical limitations” and the more we seek HIM in those tensions the more He adds to our daily walk by “rapidly increasing our spiritual freedom?”

  7. Hello Bo, I feel priveleged to be allowed to share in your
    life experiences from this blog. I am so happy that I am a part of the same church, and that I am able to observe and digest the lovely messages of hope and encouragement you so graciously share with us. Thank you for the opportunity to share your intimate and beautiful God inspired thoughts.