Answering The Call #12: 25 Years Ago: 1984 Was A Very Good Year

[stevene]

This year is a special year for me. In terms of the greatest stresses in one's life, I hit the jackpot. I had started a new job in 1983, the first well-paying position of my life (3 years after college), so it was the first full year of my first good job. I got engaged to my best friend and musical partner Marie Gustafson (now my wife). I moved into her house with my 2 cats, 2 dozen instruments and 3 computers. I quit (and unquit) smoking. I re-established a relationship with my mother. I renewed my passport, got married, honeymooned in the Caribbean, Having had emergency cancer surgery 5 weeks before my wedding, I scheduled (and then cancelled) major exploratory surgery to look for metastases, a diagnostic procedure with even odds of leaving me sterile.

All of these things happened 25 years ago. The 25th Wedding Anniversary is a huge milestone, especially in our post-modern culture which encourages easy divorce over working together (we almost divorced after 11 years). I have escaped death from disease twice now, and probably won't live to be 77, the age at which I will have been married 50 years. My wife is healthier than I am, but significantly older. than I am. Her mother died at 75, which age would leave Marie well short of our 50th Anniversary. So 25 years is especially significant for our marriage.

As we approach our 25th Wedding Anniversary, I find myself remembering the activities of that eventful year. And so I plan to include in my blog memories of 1984. It's possible that references to George Orwell's famous novel might creep into the commentary, and various contributors to Church History, but more likely I'll be quoting Jesus' Parables, David's Psalms, Solomon's Proverbs and Paul's Epistles, as well as other famous writers of Christendom through the Ages. I imagine there will be remembrances of other times in our life together that will pop up as part of retelling the events of our Inaugural Year Together.

I hope these remembrances will entertain and edify as we walk together through the comedy and drama of this family's life. And in the process, I hope to open up another view on the way God pours His love out into and through broken vessels and cracked pots. The first Mission I ever understood in my walk with God was the instruction to "tell My people I love them." Even as my Mission Statement has evolved into more elaborate concepts, this "love mission" has remained primary in my psyche. I hope that you will become more aware of that Love, not only how He has loved me, but how He loves you. After all, God so loved YOU that He sent His only Son that He sent his only Son into the world. If you had been the only person in all of history, Jesus would still have hung on the Cross to atone for your sins. THAT is Love!

I'll pray for you, and will you please pray for me? Pray that each of us will seek to know God better, to see where His hand has been in our lives, and see the Love that He has poured out abundantly on us, even when we chose not to walk with Him. And in appreciation for the Love He has given us, that each of us will seek to Answer The Call. In Jesus’ Name!

Thanks for the time you took to read this!

Stevene