Where Ever
Today marks our 38th Wedding Anniversary! Debbie and I were married at First Baptist Church in Fort Collins on June 19, 1976. Looking back it is interesting how fast the years seem to have gone by. It is hard to believe that our children are now in their 30’s and in the thick of raising their growing children.
In our memorized wedding vows Debbie used the words from the Book of Ruth that say, “where ever you go I will go…” I’m not sure she realized at the time where the path of life would lead. She married a young man who had already received a contract to teach high school business beginning in the fall. We moved to a house near Washington Park in Denver and began attending a First Assembly in Lakewood.
That church became the transition point from teaching into ministry and the congregation that we would be associated with for 19 of our 28 years of pastoral ministry. The last fourteen and a half serving as the Senior Pastor what became known as Dakota Ridge Assembly after our stints in Strasburg and Colby, Kansas.
The “where ever you go” lead from teaching to preaching to politics. Debbie went from being the “first lady” of Dakota Ridge Assembly to the “first lady” of House District 22. (Don’t tell her I used that designation!) Finally the “where ever you go” ended up being “what if we go to my home town.” So we moved to Fort Collins. A dream or at least thought that we had for many years. So there it is. thirty-Eight years in four paragraphs. You can tell I’m male!
Thirty-Seven years of growing together through the decades of life, raising our two children, following God’s call ‘where ever’ that would seem to lead. And then as we were looking for a new chapter of life in a new city, eleven months out of year 38 would find me in the hospital, with many unsure outcomes, a serious surgery and a lengthy rehab process. Just when we were are the age where we thought we had life figured out, we found out that “life makes up its own mind.”
Yet in the midst of it all we find a God who is faithful and provides that strength that is needed and the friends and support needed to make it through each month, year and season of life. I could not have survived and recovered to the extent that I have without Debbie’s steadfast love and devotion. She is certainly the glue that has made our life together what it is and for that I will be forever grateful!
BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY… “Love never stops being patient, never stops believing, never stops hoping, never gives up.Love never comes to an end….” 1 Corinthians 13:7,8