Sun set and Sun Rise: Two Lives and the Wild Goose

It's not fair.  That's life.  This time in a good way.

I'm pasting, below, the wonderful summary of my second grandson's Rite of Passage.  Those who followed my GenDads.com blog over the previous years saw Taylor Pettit make this same journey.  it has turned out well.  He, in fact, attended Colton's rite and made some of the most significant comments of the nine men who attended.

Not fair?  About my cancer, I mean.  Not fair that I should be doing so well.  Most are surprised at hearing about my advanced prostate cancer.  "You look so, well...'normal'"  This posting should be about that.  Maybe by getting back on the keyboard you'll hear more of my journey of grace and gratefulness.  Still, it is one day at a time, a cliché that brings smiles of pleasure from my Savior who see's that maybe I am catching on after all.

If you want to know more about the passage issue or about my journey with cancer, send me a comment.  Maybe you'll want to know more about my "Trailside Companion, Helps Along the Trail". It's a legacy document I am leaving for each of our six grandkids.  It's currently 40 pages and about 1/4 finished.

Let's visit Colton's journey:

If you were among those who prayed for Colton's manhood challenge, you will be rewarded in Heaven.  The story is quite long but good.  Sometimes "wonderful" can be described briefly. Tuff challenge in this case for last night's Rite of Passage.

 From 6:30 pm to 11 pm nine men, including his dad, Matt, Taylor and myself, gathered to get a recount to the year of passage. We had some worthy stories to verify it was not an ordinary year in an ordinary life.   Each man read a letter of encouragement to Colton.  Wow.  Impressive how deeply they went into their own journey and growth in faith and how personal their challenges to him were.  Honestly, I was on the edge of tears all night as I felt God showed up in a typically powerful, if quiet way.  Tears didn't always stay where they belong for tough men.  Come to think of it there seems from cracking voices that not  many were dry-eyed as they reported their own life journeys turning them to affirmations for Colton.

The celebratory gifts were amazing.  A small steel statue of a Massi warrior from Senegal by a man who bartered hard for it in Africa  but didn't know why. Most touching was one of those old fold out carpenters rulers--antique now days with tape measures and laser hand-helds.  It was handed down through wife's family.  The admonition of keeping God's rules(The Ten and all the others) and measuring each step of choice along life's path.  One good family friend who trained horses up here in the wild, put together a perfectly crafted rough wood frame with a bit and barbed wire with quotes from James 3 and I Cor 13; the difficulty in controlling the tongue (God's  bit is needed) and turning the tongue to expressions of God's love. My gift was still only half done at 40 pages but nicely framed in a special journal, Trailside Companion, Helps along the Trail.  I'll finish it this summer and a similar legacy volume goes to each of Matt and Cari's six.  Last gift was done quite dramatically, a replacement rifle for the one stolen a year ago.  Just in time for our Fall hunt at a lodge.

Mom Cari showed up with a cake.  She was bedecked in an apron.  That began the ceremony of Colton cutting the apron strings.  The men then lined up and Colton walked the gauntlet shaking each hand then joining us on the end of the line of the men who desire more than anything to walk with God.

To a man when each departed with Colton thanking them for coming, they announced strongly their own thanks at how wonderful and unforgettable it was to be part of such a ceremony.  How they wish their own fathers had shown such passionate care for guiding their children.

Now you can pray for Colton on his adventure to become a man of God.   This ceremony was a distinctive launching pad.  The choices to walk the trail God has designed for him will now will be his.  These men pledged to remain part of his life wherever possible, but he knows the choices are his and designed into a Iife that is short, hard, unfair, and can end at any time.