GOOD MORNING, FRIENDS

A REMEMBERAMBLE NOVEMBER 1, 2025

I must of course, begin by thanking each and everyone who have sent cards and gifts, prayers and kind words to me and to these pups. Sometimes it seems as if it were a dream, the how and why that I came to be here to serve you as best I can, with words, which The Lord gave to me, and gives to me yet.

I think of how God worked miracles that were set down in that great Book, to Glorify Him, of his deliverance of His three servants from the fiery furnace, who brought Joseph from slavery to fulfil his destiny as a stalwart man of God, who served Pharoah through his God-given abilities.

He is the same God who sent an angel to close the mouths of the lions, the God who brought life and redemption to those who desired it, and saved me from death and despair. It is humbling beyond all measure, to know that God opened a door that led me to redemption.

As He did for those whose stories fill the pages of our Bible, and through their service to Him, made themselves known even today, these millennia from when they walked and breathed in life. Who am I, that He would call me friend?

Just writing that line has caused me to break down in tears, who am I, that He would call me friend? Awe is too mild in meaning, to tell of it, there is no word that carries the gravitas and magnitude to come close to let this man, me, tell you of it.

That matters not, all that matters is that He did it, and I am unable to quantify it. Which is fine with me. The facts speak for themselves, do they not? Early in my addiction to opiates and alcohol, as I was losing all that I owned, and losing those who loved me as well, because an addict is not lovable.

I despaired at the life's vision I was given to understand of where my road in life led. I had some great-uncles who literally threw their lives away as alcoholics, never doing anything with their lives, and in their older years, having nothing, owning nothing.

They were passed around from sibling to sibling's home until they wore out the welcome and had to go, nowhere to go, but had to go nevertheless. They died little lamented, except the words, "he had a brilliant mind, he could have done anything."

I saw that as my future, a life of profound loss, friendless, alone, destitute, unlamented, and unremarked. I went down low in life, as they did, sure that it was the life god had ordained for me. We credit God for the things we do not want to change in our lives.

In so doing, we vacate responsibility, by crediting it to Him, and by default give up the struggle. If God made us this way, how could we stand a fighting chance in life? It is the ultimate cop-out. I lived in a drug motel, in the midst of squalor, owned the clothes on my back.

I lived only to kill myself just a bit, each and everyday, in hopes of hastening the end of my sordid life...or rather, I will term it death, not life. I was not at all working on living, but my sole goal was to die.

I could not bear the thought of living long enough to take another breath, and the only thing I wanted out of life, was to die. All of that changed inn the twinkling of an eye, on March 6, 2008, a bitter and cold night.

I fumbled trying to take my life, and God told me to walk out of the dirty, dark and frigid waters of that sawmill pond where I tried in vain to drown my self, and end my sad, sorry life. Yes, the Voice of God said, "come on out, it will be alright." You cannot fathom how shattering hearing God speak is.

It rends your very soul. He does not need to tell you twice. I did as He said, and because I did that, although freezing, shivering from profound hypothermia, weak from blood loss, and cold to my core, a sad sight indeed, I knew what He said had happened as He spoke the words.

I got help, went to the hospital and then to New Beginnings in Christ here in Garfield, where I threw myself on the mercy of my old friends Donald and JoAnna Atkinson, who with the Lord's help, gave me a home, the first home I had in years, and let me learn how to live again.

When my feet stood on the ground after I came out of those horrible waters, I had no idea where I would go, what would happen to me, but it mattered not a whit. God said, "come on out, it will be alright." I did not believe...I KNEW! Knowing is different.

Not once did I ever, in the intervening years want a pain pill or drink of alcohol. Never. I spent my time trying to redeem myself, because a God who did what He did for me cannot be denied. He has led me here, and given you to be my friend.

He hath given me opportunities to show that my redeemer liveth, and a work to do with words. I fail often, and sometimes my words are ignorant, but I do not run off of the rails too often, because I know where this train is headed.

"Come on out, it will be alright," may not compare with those Biblical miracles as far as being recorded for all of history, but in my mind, and in my heart, it shook the very foundation of the universe.

I am so glad I found you, and so glad to call you friend, and your faithfulness in coming here to let us visit one with the other, is a blessing indeed, and I count that as His work too.

..... NUMBERS 6: 24-26, KJV

..... we boyz three, babee conway, lil merle, & me