Well, with three days to go until my old driver’s license expires on my 35th birthday, I finally made it over to the License Bureau this morning to get my driver’s license renewed.  I finally have a driver’s license sporting a photo without hair (I’ve been fashionably bald for several years now) and without my social security number on it.  I liked that they now put an organ donor symbol on the front of the cards, but I wasn’t fond of having gone from 150 lbs to 185 lbs.  I sure am glad I didn’t get it renewed before I lost 15 pounds over the last two months!!!  Maybe over the next year I can loose another 20 and get lasik surgery done and go back in for another one without the eyeglasses restriction.

In the past, I’ve not posted to my blog very often, and I’ve saved it for whenever I have something deep and (usually) spiritual to talk about.    I’ve been terrible about blogging lately because I haven’t really felt like I had anything deep or particularly spiritual to comment on.  I also was tired of dealing with my old blogging software (ExpressionEngine).
Well, today begins a new era.  I’ve dusted off the old blog, threw-out ExpressionEngine, installed WordPress, tediously imported all my old blog posts and comments, and dug around in the guts of the web server for a long time to make sure that all links to posts on my old blog still work on my new WordPress blog.

So here we go…the new and improved RavenBrook.net.  We’ll see if it gets any more attention from me than my old blog did.

As I drove to the gym tonight I was listening to my Warren Barfield CD. In his song Beautiful, Broken World, one part of the lyrics got me thinking:

If you never knew an enemy,
Oh, could you understand,
The worth of a friend?

While I think he is right that it takes having an enemy (or at very least a period of not having any friends) to really come to appreciate the value of friendship, I think it takes a whole lot more to come to understand the quality of a friend. I don’t think you can really know that until you have laughed, cried, played, worked, doubted, and worshipped with someone. Sixteen years ago in college I had a classmate who at the time I would have called a friend. But when we graduated, I fully expected to never see her again. But the Lord brought us back together here in Springfield about five years ago and since that time we have shared the experiences of life that have exposed the qualities of true friendship. I’m grieving with her this week a terrible and tragic loss, and the only thing that makes it sound bearable is knowing that — like me — she has several friends who have been tested and proven to be true and that she knows the Peace that passes all understanding.

Up until about the year 2000, I don’t think I really even started to comprehend how deep a relationship could go between friends. And until 2003 or 2004 I head never really had what I would now call a true friend. There were always the people I liked to talk to or hang out with or play games with or go to concerts with, but friends that I could share even my doubts and fears and sorrows with came much later in life. If you’ve only had “friendly aquaintenances” up until now I would like to encourage you to find a true friend — someone you can be open and honest with, someone you can share life’s ups and downs with, because sooner or later life will hit you broadside with something you can’t handle on your own — and all but your true friends will be gone.

Today I’ve been listening to Shawn McDonald’s new album Roots on NewReleaseTuesday.com.  One of the tracks is called Clarity.  Ahh, yes, I could use some clarity today.  The interviews I’ve been conducting haven’t been going all that great.  The list of the home-improvement projects that need to be done before things completely fall apart is endless (but the bank account and available time to complete them with are not).  Decisions need to be made in how to handle my various new responsibilities with my new job.  And then there is the issue of child rearing.  I’ve been reading a couple of books the last couple of evenings.  One refers to this process as training and the other as shepherding.  Both (along with some recent behaviors at home) make me seriously wonder if we’ve let some issues carry on too long to resolve them now.  It sure would be nice to have some clarity and directions in all these areas.  But as Indeed magazine reminded me this morning, it’s not as-if I’m in control anyway. 

I wonder if there is an actual medical “purpose” for scar tissue? I may have to ask my cousin’s (doctor) husband that some time. The Bible tells us that there is a purpose for the (emotional/spiritual) scar tissue of life’s wounds, so I suspect there is in physical scar tissue, as well.
All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. (2 Corinthians 1:3-4 MSG)
I found this passage back in 2005 when I was grieving the loss of my wife and trying to make some sense of it all. There was a blessed young man who had lost his wife a few years prior who came alongside me during that time that helped me keep my head above water. I can’t imagine what I would have done without his shoulder to lean on. This week the passage came to mind again as I spoke to him again for the first time in a while and we both began to lend comfort to another young man who has found himself walking this dark road. It isn’t a short road. The wounds still hurt four years later, even after re-marrying. But the “Father of all mercy”, the “God of all healing counsel” has been faithful these four years. I pray that somehow He can use these scars for His glory.