Today Yolanda and I had to put our little dog Wilson to sleep. He was 16 years old and had been getting sick the past few days so we took him in this am to be put to sleep. It was a sober reminder to me about the impact that Wilson has had on our lives. Whenever you have a death of any kind in a family, you begin to talk and think about the life that was once a part of the family. I know some would say, “he was just a dog” but Yolanda and I have never been without him as a couple. She Got Wilson as a puppy when we were first dating and we have had him ever since. We were talking about all the times that Wilson could have died from just doing stooopid things like getting out of the car on a trip from Florida to Springfield Missouri and running the WRONG WAY up the highway towards a birm in the road. Or when he saw a cat at our house in Wyoming late one night and forgot he was on a leash and took a tumble on his head down eight concrete steps. The best and most endearing memory I will have of him is when I was REALLY sick with my eye situation. I remember one time when I was so sick that I didn’t want Yolanda or anyone else around including my dog. Wilson knew something was wrong and kept trying to get closer to me on the couch. I finally pushed him away with my foot, but he kept on creaping up to me. I love my wife and she knows this with everything we have been through the past five years, but I can say without a doubt, that I probably would have killed myself if it wasn’t for Wilson. I just had no reason to get out of bed some days and sometimes Wilson was the only reason I had to get up and get going with my day. The mornings were always the hardest for me when I was sick, but Wilson was always right there with me. There was a stretch of 11 months when I was out of work where I was with Wilson all day sometimes. We definitely spent some good times together and now that he is gone I have a new respect for what he meant to me in this life. I want to encourage you today with the death of my little dog Wilson. My God loved me so much that he gave Yolanda and I a little Yorkie when we were first married but could see down the path of my life that I was going to need Wilson at my greatest point of need. He gave me Wilson when he knew I was going to come to a place of giving up on life and needing to have a reason to go on. The God I serve is so conerned about me that he would give our family that little dog to get my mind off of my eye rotting out of my head and on Wilson. God knew I was going to have struggles with believing He was there but knew that Wilson could be that bridge for me to figure out it was God all along giving me what I needed exactly when I needed it. Yolanda and I will miss Wilson, but that little dog served his purpose in this life and I am determined to do the same. I will live my life for the cause of Christ and for the people around me that need to see that Jesus can take care of EVERYTHING they are going through. This little blog post may seem a little dramatic, but you need to have stepped in my shoes the past five years to understand what Wilson and my God have meant to me. It was Wilson’s love of me that kept me going and I know that it is the love I have for people that will help them in their time of need. Hopefully, I will be that bridge for people to get from seeing a person loving them and lifting them up to a God that wants to know them and have a real relationship with them. If you want to know more about Jesus and giving him more important role in your life, then send me and email and I will be in touch! pbrian7@yahoo.com
Swine Flu and you…what we are really seeing in America
Well I don’t know about you, but I think I am fed up with hearing about swine flu (typed in all lower case letters for a reason). I look on my twitter account and see that one of the most searched terms for the past couple of weeks has been swine flu. This has really turned out to be more of a flop (in a good way) as far as the severity of the flu strain than it was first supposed to be. People are contracting it and getting better with treatment and some news articles I have read said that it is just a different strain of the common flu. One thing I find amazing is the way that the world has reacted to this epidemic of words and information about the flu. The news has reported on it, people have blogged about it, facebook and myspace updates about everyday on it and just a “water cooler” type of buzz that has been infectious not in the disease but in the misinformation about it. This swine flu has shown me one thing that is unequivocally true about this world and most of its inhabitants…they listen to anything the media and others say and then react to it. I know that as a Christian, God has not called me to be reactionary in the way I live my life. Not even on a Spiritual level, but when I react to situations in my life I let circumstances dictate to me how happy I am, how happy I make others around me and am just generally controlled by things other than Jesus. We need to be the light of the world and this is not just wearing a sandwich board in the downtown area of town and screaming “turn or burn” to people passing by. It is to have such a relationship with Jesus that we don’t react to situations as far reaching as swine flu or maybe with a coworker that just likes to push our buttons or when something traumatic happens to us in life. The reason why I know this type of “light shining” will work is the proof of the reactionary nature of the world we live in. Most people are just reacting to the things that happen in life instead of acting on them. I am thankful that this flu has not been the pandemic it was first thought it could be, but look at the reaction to people because I really believe it can be an open door for seeing people move from reactionary in life to living a life with Jesus that is “actionary” (if that is even a word) 🙂
Holy Crap 