Every once in a while, I’ll search Facebook for lost friends from my childhood. This morning, I looked for a couple of brothers from our Hugh Goodwin days. To say they were wild is about like saying the Pope doesn’t date much.
I found one brother, now retired. He looks as hardened as I’d have expected. Rough. Mean. I called a childhood friend to ask about the other brother. Suicide years ago.
I did find a son of the deceased brother. Upper middle class, a friend described his new family. It looks like he’s made something of himself! I’m truly glad. I can only imagine his upbringing but he appears to have made some healthy decisions along the way.
That brings me to two words that have been running around in my head these past few days: Now what?
It’s something I find folks asking at different points in life. When my grandfather’s dime store was going under and my aunt was just entering high school, my grandmother started a new career at the age of 55. The business was failing and they had bills to pay. Pauline surely asked “Now what?” About a decade later, Dad’s boss came in and told him his paycheck wasn’t any good and the business was closing, Dad went home and asked “Now what?”
I have friends who have lost it all through addiction. At some point, some of them asked “Now what?” They didn’t like the picture they were seeing and made decisions to change that scene.
The “Now what?” moment usually comes after something big in life: recovering from a failure, tragedy or change in life. But, we all face the “Now what?” moments throughout our lives. I’ve been there and once again find myself at one of those “Now what?” points in life.
I plan on looking deeper into the “Now what?” of life first in scripture and second through stories of family and friends. I firmly believe I serve the God of second chances. And third chances. He’s also the God of four hundred and sixty seventh chances. One of my favorite sayings is “If I’m going to trust God for eternity, I need to learn how to trust Him for Tuesday.”
I’ve been following Jesus forty six years. That’s over three quarters of my life. And I still have much to learn about this thing we call “walking by faith”.
The best part of being a Christian and facing the “Now what?” is we have Someone who not only hears our cry but will also reply to our question. Time to work on my hearing.
ramblings of a grace crazed ragamuffin 