Roller Coaster Friend
Life is truly a roller coaster. You wait in line forever for opportunities to present themselves. As you wait, you can be easily distracted by various things: the cotton candy vendor, a sudden urge to go the bathroom, or a shorter line at a nearby ride. Once you get on the ride, you just hang on for dear life and go wherever it takes you. But the one constant is the friend beside you.
Sometimes your friend will go with you on those distractions. Sometimes they prevent you from going. And when you're about to harf the footlong coney dog you ate before jumped on the Iron Corkscrewing Magnum Beast, your friend is there beside you all the way.
The park has been crazy this week. A close acquaintance of mine has been suffering because his wife left him, taking his two beautiful girls. The news is plastered with a man who let his "wife" die by starving her to death. And these things serve as markers to me - to be appreciative for the one who has been beside me all through this crazy ride.
The Schiavo media blitz reminded me of a woman in Albuquerque, NM who changed my life in one evening. I had brought our North Dakota youth down there to compete in our National Fine Arts competition. The aunt of one of my kids invited us over to her house ... all of us: seventeen teenagers, six adults, and two babies. She made us all a great lasagna dinner and we entertained her with singing, acting (thank you Laura and Craig for making the phrase "No Nakie!" part of our vocabulary), and worship.
She gave me a glimpse of true love. Her husband of less than one year suffered a brain injury in an accident. He was in a coma then moved to a "vegetative state." Ed was there - you could see it in his eyes, even if he couldn't move. For almost twenty years, Steph had cared for Ed. He was in the home - she and her nurses would help to take care of him. What love - to still care for a man who was not able to reciprocate in the way we are used to.
She taught me how to love my wife. Though her vegetative state only comes after I have been talking for too long, we have had our share of hardships. We've been together when we had no food in the house, when the car broke down in Rockford, Illionis - 9 hours from home, when the doctor said he wasn't sure if I was going to live, when we left all the kids in North Dakota whom we loved very much, when we fought to have a baby, and then when we lost that baby. But she was also there when I graduated college, when we got the news I wasn't going to die, when we had beautiful nights of ministry to teenagers, and when we curl up with our loving cats.
"Friendships" come and go. But the true friend endures the test of time - through all of the ups, downs, and even when we are waiting in line. Martha, I love you with all my heart.
Sometimes your friend will go with you on those distractions. Sometimes they prevent you from going. And when you're about to harf the footlong coney dog you ate before jumped on the Iron Corkscrewing Magnum Beast, your friend is there beside you all the way.
The park has been crazy this week. A close acquaintance of mine has been suffering because his wife left him, taking his two beautiful girls. The news is plastered with a man who let his "wife" die by starving her to death. And these things serve as markers to me - to be appreciative for the one who has been beside me all through this crazy ride.
The Schiavo media blitz reminded me of a woman in Albuquerque, NM who changed my life in one evening. I had brought our North Dakota youth down there to compete in our National Fine Arts competition. The aunt of one of my kids invited us over to her house ... all of us: seventeen teenagers, six adults, and two babies. She made us all a great lasagna dinner and we entertained her with singing, acting (thank you Laura and Craig for making the phrase "No Nakie!" part of our vocabulary), and worship.
She gave me a glimpse of true love. Her husband of less than one year suffered a brain injury in an accident. He was in a coma then moved to a "vegetative state." Ed was there - you could see it in his eyes, even if he couldn't move. For almost twenty years, Steph had cared for Ed. He was in the home - she and her nurses would help to take care of him. What love - to still care for a man who was not able to reciprocate in the way we are used to.
She taught me how to love my wife. Though her vegetative state only comes after I have been talking for too long, we have had our share of hardships. We've been together when we had no food in the house, when the car broke down in Rockford, Illionis - 9 hours from home, when the doctor said he wasn't sure if I was going to live, when we left all the kids in North Dakota whom we loved very much, when we fought to have a baby, and then when we lost that baby. But she was also there when I graduated college, when we got the news I wasn't going to die, when we had beautiful nights of ministry to teenagers, and when we curl up with our loving cats.
"Friendships" come and go. But the true friend endures the test of time - through all of the ups, downs, and even when we are waiting in line. Martha, I love you with all my heart.
posted by Matthew and Martha Morgan at 12:41 PM
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