Death sucks!

My uncle Roger died this weekend.

I've struggled with what to write ever since my mom called me with the news. Roger's children know about & visit my website. I find myself weeping when I think about our family's loss, but I can't imagine what it'd be like to lose a father.

As I think about Roger's passing, there's nothing "fair" about it. He's gone. His loss is painful and it will take a long time to heal. As I process this experience, I find my thoughts returning to two key elements.

(1) Hope. Roger's with Jesus now. No more pain. As Christ-followers, we have HOPE! "Where, O death is your victory? Where, O death is your sting?" Jesus conquered death on the cross for us, that we could know eternal life through Him. The apostle Paul refers to our earthly body as a tent, a temporary dwelling. This isn't it for us!

(2) Hate. Visiting Roger only 48 hours before he died, I was surprised at how much he'd deteriorated in the two weeks since I'd seen him last. Ravaged is the only word I can think of to describe it. To me, the cancer was a graphic representation of the sheer hatred Satan has for mankind, made in God's image.

I'm not going to pretend there's any easy answers. Why didn't they catch it sooner? Why didn't the treatments work? Why did God allow this to happen? I don't know. Because of Adam's sin, sickness & death entered the picture. Someday we're all going to die. For me, it could have been 8 years ago when I was diagnosed with malignant lymphoma, but evidently God has more for me to do here on earth before I get to finish my race & join Roger, Grandpa Berg, and all the others who have gone before me.

But until then, the God of all comfort promises to hide us under the shadow of His wings.

We'll miss you, Roger!

It's here!

It's 12:15am and I just got out of all my extreme weather gear. Now, what were you doing outside in a blizzard at such a late hour you might ask...

Well, this afternoon while belaying at the climbing tower, I got the idea to try climbing in a blizzard at 11pm, using headlamps for light. Never tried climbing in a blizzard before...

Got out to the tower a little before 11pm to wait for the other adventuresome folks who were going to join me. As I waited, I noticed a really faint flash. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. After all, I was standing in a field with 40mph wind gusts blowing sleet into my eyes. A few minutes later there was another bright flash, as bright as a camera flash followed by the unmistakable rumble of thunder. That officially shut down our adventure for the evening.

Oh well, maybe next time!

The blizzard is a comin'

That's right, campers. The strongest snow storm in as long as I can remember is arriving today. We already got the first 4 inches last night in what may end up being over 20 inches by Monday.

Nice. You know it's serious when the National Weather Service says things like, "If you leave the safety of indoors, you are putting your life at risk."

The fun part will be tonight, all snug & warm indoors at 2am, when my fire pager goes off for someone in a ditch who thought they could handle the roads.

Hello, this is Dave...

Can you believe it? I'm sitting right now in the conference room here in Timber-lee's office building, taking last minute calls from parents taking advantage of our "Early Bird" registration special for this year's summer camp. I feel like one of those Time-Life operators with my little headset on. Having the imagination I've been blessed with, I've had a number of fantasy calls go through my mind...

"Registration, this is Dave. CONGRATULATIONS!! You're the 58th caller today. You've won a 60" plasma screen TV!"

"Registration, this is Dave. Today is your lucky day! For the next 15 minutes, I'm registering campers two for the price of one!"

Uh, yeah. I'd probably get fired.

"Registration, this is Dave..."