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A Place Called Tennessee

12/14/2015

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Picture
The thick fog rests on top of these green hills as I drive to work. They cushion the outskirts of town and give the interstate something to cut through. The bridge going over it keeps me moving at a slower pace than all of those rolling down below. Trucks hauling their payloads and the cars with their commuters, rushing off towards the big town. This small town sits along a notch in the Bible Belt. The days are filled with work and the evenings are relaxed. No place to be and nowhere to go. This pace suits me fine.

My love rides with me as we as we go nowhere on a weekend drive, staring at the sun, the evergreen trees and the next hill in front of us. Life has a way of cycling around and we take turns feeling alive and feeling drained. Too fast a pace and we have to slow it back down and take it easy. Me and Her and the world that we shut out at times. Like in the beginning, when it seemed we were the only two alive. Our eyes locked onto each other's, when we held hands as the big yellow leaves fell and swirled around blown by the fall breezes, as God smiled and the sun felt so warm on our face and skin. Love was young and our Trust was shaken. When we talked for hours on end and Hope lifted its head. A cup of coffee was savored along with the conversation. Nobody ever got me like you.

The miles have kept rolling and we are so far removed from where we began. Those moments come in smaller doses now but we keep the busyness of life at bay and take time for our hearts. Our love has grown along with our Belief and Trust in the One who brought us together. The music that has played in the background as the soundtrack of our life, has kept us moving along. So much life has happened; ups and downs and struggles and heartache. We have climbed up hills too steep to think we’d make it over and we have rolled downhill until we've been rolled over. But here in this valley surrounded by the hills that remind us of home, we have come to understand life is not always about where you are at, but who you are with.  My only friend, the best, you still are. I am yours and you are mine. A lifetime ago, we dreamed of a lifetime of love and friendship and we have known so much of that. Your precious heart and my gentle hands have been guarded by this selfish love of each other. I am your defender and you are my greatest believer.

We have come here and hoped to call this our home, but our hearts are torn between going back and going there. My family and yours on either end of the line between us all. Jobs, friendships, and things we have, do not take away the longing for the things that we believe ourselves to lack. Our hearts are there but we stay here, staying on, taking on the world. Like the beginning when we were the only two. But we hit our stride and the soundtrack plays on, only every so often a bump scratches the record and we feel those things that we miss. Laughs with babies, hugs from siblings and Mom, grandbabies that have our hearts and that town I want to leave behind. I turn the corner and it is still there. Your Mother’s heart longs for the days you will hold them again. My aching past is only ever slightly healed running towards Memphis. So we are stuck and unstuck in a place called Tennessee. Moving forward to outrun the past, cherishing the moments with babies. A sadness that may not go away but hasn’t been invited to stay. We are only ever as strong as our weakest moments. The uncertainty of the future has not kept us from embracing the next day.

In a place called Tennessee, we make our home. A million miles from where we started but the stars are the same. These Cedars have covered us and blocked the clouds. The sun shines and we see this town for the potential that it is. The strangers we pass are full of the same. A friendship, and an introduction to a man named Love and they could Light up the world all around them. If we are not here to Help them to the Helper, than what are we doing?  We know that this life is not all about us, but there are moments.... we know we have to take care. Care of each other’s hearts, care of this love we are no good without. Your hand in mine and some peace of mind. My Home is with you, wherever that is.

In a place called Tennessee, we dream of our future and those we love. The kids growing up and prayers for Him to use them in a mighty way. Dreams we never imagined have come true here. Others we thought would, have not come true yet. We crossed those Blue Ridges and Appalachians and landed here. Hopes and Prayers and the passing of time, we wait for God to bring about His Good Purposes for us here. We are never without it, for we are never without Him. Father of Light and Love continues to light the way through the darkness we can sometimes find ourselves in. Those days don’t last, for there is Hope here in a place called Tennessee. I can feel it all around me. He works wherever His people are and they are here. Whatever I have thought I would always be without, I have discovered here in this place called Tennessee. For you are with me, and He is with us, here in Tennessee.


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