Tag Archive | Death
Dad’s Funeral: Sorrow & Celebration
The Weeks Leading up to the Funeral From about Thanksgiving, it was hard to get dad out of bed for just about anything. From bed, he would ask for ice cream and Diet Coke. At the beginning, he would feed himself, but as the days went on he would ask to be fed. Not being […]
Straddling Eternity
As my dad lay in bed Sunday, nearing his final moments on this Earth, I was at church in worship. One of the hymns we sang was “Higher Ground” by Johnson Oatman, Jr., a hymn that longs for “a gleam of glory bright” with the prayer to stand on “Heaven’s tableland.” It seems Oatman had […]
Why Am I Alive?
I sit here tonight crying, grieving really. The odd thing is that my breakdown was triggered by the death of someone I don’t even know. But it could have been me. Maybe it should have been me. About seven weeks ago I was in a rollover car accident. People on the scene, the emergency room doctor […]
Oh My God!
As I opened my eyes I really did believe that this was it. I was just waiting for the roof to crash in on me, crushing me beneath the weight of the car, doubting that I would survive. All I could say was “Oh my God!” as I gripped the steering wheel and braced myself […]
A Prayer of Benediction for Chaplain Dale Goetz
FT. JACKSON, SC (3 Sep 10) – Recently, the Chaplain Corps lost one of its finest chaplains, Chaplain (CPT) Dale Goetz, in Afghanistan. We received the news here at the Chaplain School while attending the Chaplain Captain’s Career Course. Since many of us knew Dale, and the rest of us felt the camaraderie of a “Brother […]
Tragedy . . . Why?
There are a few words in our language that are a complete sentence by themselves. “Why” is one of those words. Having four children, I have heard that question a lot: “But dad, WHY?” As a father, many times I did have an answer for that question: “You can’t play in the street because you […]
Here I Sit 