My Rocks

One of my favorite places to go hiking in the world is Red Rocks Canyon in Nevada. Growing up near Chicago and then living in Florida has not really given me many opportunities to get up close and personal with mountains. I guess I figure that I need to make up for lost time so I get out there every chance I get. I love the trails that include class 3 routes in which we have to climb over boulders the size of cars. I love the rush I get hiking along the end of a cliff with a 100 drop straight down. I climb on these boulders and hike along these ledges with complete confidence. Why? They are solid. They are rocks. When I am standing on them I feel safe.

At a time in my life in which it feels like I spend most of my time walking on Jello, when I come across a rock, I am truly grateful. These rocks have come in many different shapes and sizes. My church has been a big rock in many different ways. Growing up church was something I did because I had to. Now I look forward to church and experience a very special type of community every week. A critical extension of the church is my small group who have supplied endless support.

There are many rocks in the forms of friends and family scattered about. Seemingly new people step up on a daily basis to impress us with their kindness. Recently I have received some amazing emails from friends that have really lightened up my day. My wifes' grandma went as far as to fly down here from Ohio to help out while we wait.

One of my favorite trails at Red Rocks has a portion of the trail that is a result of a rock slide years earlier. If you you look quickly at the resulting pile of rocks, it looks like just that. A random pile of rocks. But if you look closely, you see that is is far from that. The bottom of the pile is filled with small rocks that began the rock slide. As you work your way up the rocks get bigger and eventually turn to 2 ton boulders. Each rock in the pile is critical to keeping the from collapsing. The large boulders on top would be useless with out the smaller rocks beneath it.

My church, my friends, my family are all the small rocks underneath supporting the big boulders. There are two boulders in my life. One is my faith. The other my wife. My faith has always been a strength of mine. Perhaps it out out of necessity due to all the challenges that we have had to face, but I have always had a strong faith in God and the He would somehow protect us. Although it is being seriously tested right now, my faith is still a boulder.

Which brings me to my wife. To be as simple as possible; I could not do this with out her. She is my rock, she is my boulder, she is my mountain. She has been with me everyday of this ordeal and every step of the way. Simply having her there makes it all easier. When this is all said and done, I am giving thanks to those that have saved my life, God will be number one, and my wife number two. Above the surgeons and above the donor family. The reason? Without, her I am not sure that I would even make my way to the surgery.

Thank you to all my rocks, and here is to hoping that I'll be back on the real rocks soon.