Still Alive and Well
I’m still alive and well
I’m still alive and well
Every now and then it’s kind of hard to tell
But I’m still alive and well
(from Still Alive and Well, written by Rick Derringer, performed by Johnny Winter 1973)
In 2019 I wrote something I called Feet Faddish in which I told of the time Cameron told me that when I am not alive anymore, he wants my truck.
I reminded him of that not too long ago. He didn’t seem to remember but of course he was only nine at the time he said that to me. And besides, now that he is sixteen and getting his driver’s license in the Fall, he already has a new set of wheels lined up and doesn’t need my truck.
Thankfully.
I am not done using it.
Nope I am still alive and well.
But apparently, I was close though.
Recently my sister-in-law Kate ran into someone that Kim and I knew from the past. He told Kate that he was sorry to hear about Curt.
Not sure where that story originated, and I know every now and then it’s kind of hard to tell, but I am most definitely, at least for the moment, still alive and well.
I heard a good sermon last Sunday about mourning.
It was from the Beatitudes and specifically Matthew 5:4.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
I believe that.
I believe we have experienced that.
When I heard the pastor read that scripture, I wrote the word HELD on the notes I was taking and shared it with Kim who has firsthand experience.
But “those who mourn” doesn’t only mean mourning in a grieving way, it could also refer to those who mourn a situation they are struggling with, maybe feelings of unworthiness or helplessness; failure; or loss in another way.
Feelings we may all struggle with from time to time.
This morning I came across a file on my computer. It was an essay written by Donny titled Struggles and Decisions. It was a writing interpreting Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken.”
In the essay Donny writes “I believe Frost is trying to show a relationship between the struggles and decisions made throughout life.”
Frost writes “Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.” Donny wrote, “by saying this he is showing how hard some decisions may be, because you never know what the final outcome might be” and “that a man comes to a point in his life where he has to make a choice of what he is going to do to better himself.”
In the sermon I listened to on Sunday, Pastor Micah used Job, a man who had everything and then loses it, as an example of someone who struggled. Job struggled with God’s fairness after his experience. In the end Job makes peace with God “My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you.” (Job 42:5)
Donny didn’t experience Job’s loss, but I am sure he had some struggles. He wrote in his essay about taking the path less traveled and avoiding some of the less desirable situations, others he knew that were close to him chose, that seemed more traveled and more destructive.
In choosing the path less traveled he was avoiding problems others he knew had faced, and rising above.
But I also think, outside of what he discussed in this essay, Donny’s need to make that trip that summer, that he didn’t return from, was fulfilling a need he was struggling with. He had some unfinished business he had to tend to in his heart. And I think it’s fair to say he found his answer.
And ultimately, in his mourning, in his struggle, Donny received Divine comfort.
We know for sure that his “ears had heard of you.”
And now we know that “his eyes have seen you” as well.
And that’s our blessing, that’s our comfort.
I suppose like Job we could struggle with God’s fairness too.
But blessed are we who mourn, for we have the comfort of knowing Donny is blessed to be with and able to see Jesus.
That is comforting.
We are held.
And we know who holds Donny.
Who is still alive and well, in our hearts.
Postscript:
This Sunday it will be twenty-four years since Donny’s accident.
And we miss him.