One of the good things about working in an office around other professionals, and being a part of a Sunday School class and small group and around my group of friends – so I am not on an island, off by myself. I see and hear every day how people I respect conduct their day to day lives. How people relate to and deal with other people: friends, family, strangers. I have discussions with my friends and coworkers every day, about things going on in life. So much deeper than social media. So many of my friends have serious things they’re having to deal with – so so many of them. We share and learn and grow and pray, as opposed to being off all isolated, letting my mind run rampant with conspiracy theories about the people I live life with every day. All this is a life lesson for me as I near retirement. I’ll have to be all the more purposeful in how I live my life.
The veteran that I play golf with always has drama in his life, for the entire time I’ve known him. Doesn’t seem to have many friends. No roots, he skips from church to church. Seems like every time he shows up at a new church something “amazing” happens. He goes out and helps in the parking lot. Talks to the pastor about his issues. Something always happens and he moves on. He had gone to the Passion City Church location south of town, but had a fallout there as well. Lots of health issues though the years, due to something that happened in the military. Jumped from job to job, then enrolled in school, then got permanent disability so he dropped out. Always his boss’ fault, the doctor’s fault, someone at the church wronged him, his wife trying to get him committed. He doesn’t see the pattern. So now he’s divorcing his wife, who seemed to marry him only so she could get American citizenship.
I try to listen and be a friend, but I can tell he isn’t listening to anything I have to say. Worries me that he will take some sort of action against me, like he does everyone else. Keeps calling the police about his wife. I kept getting texts from him in the middle of the night. Told him more than once than he needs to get regular sleep, especially considering the health issues he’s had. Any friend of mine would tell me the same thing. More than half the time that he arranges to play golf with me, he doesn’t show up. Not sure how I can be more of a friend.
He asked me to follow him on Twitter. He followed me back. He kept telling me all these things his wife did, so I asked if he had asked her directly about her school and work. He said he wasn’t curious! I didn’t say that it sure sounded like he was. After that he texted me, saying “in life things have a beginning and ending. Our relationship began but now the bible says I Peter 4:7-8 ‘Everything will soon come to an end. So be serious and sensible enough to pray…’” This before I encouraged him a second time to get more sleep. Guess the questions I asked him challenged him too much. Then he blocked me on Twitter. Guess he didn’t like my tweets.
I will continue to pray for him. I usually wouldn't share so many personal details, but perhaps by laying all this out he can step back and see the big picture.
In other news, another friend’s 19 year old daughter just had her second accident within just a few months, both at intersections with turning cars. She was not at fault either time. Man when I am going through an intersection I always SLOW DOWN and keep my eye on every car in the area. You never know what other cars are gonna do. Plus you may not know when the light is going to turn. You can’t just go and expect other cars to stay out of your way. Her most decent accident was after 9 pm so there couldn’t have been that much traffic. If there was just one other car in the intersection that looked like it might be turning out in front of you, that’s yet another reason to slow down. Hopefully she will become a more defensive driver, a term that I rarely see out on the road these days.
Article: Why you should pretend to be more humble than you are. Man I hate it when others come off as more humble than me.
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