Wrestling with Jacob

A journal of faith, grief and devotional musings

healing

  • Remembering Jake with Joy

    Clark Griswold is trapped in the attic. You remember the scene. The comedy classic pushed the laughter aside for a moment and hits us with the chill of somberness with the ghost of Christmas past in old family films.  Cold and shivering, crying and smiling, Chevy Chase drapes a blanket over himself and captures the Read more

  • Finding comfort, hope and peace. A Grief journey 

    Small town people step up big when their neighbors need them. Stacey and I experienced the Benzie embrace in 2013 and 14 when we lost four of our loved ones suddenly.  I am observing a small community that has lost many young people over a short period of time. Some kids survived thankfully but will Read more

  • Grief Shared Is Grief Diminished

    “Grief shared is grief diminished.” An insightful statement from Gaylord my wise friend a career funeral director. Shortly after Jake’s funeral I continued to bump into people grieving over him and feeling terrible for Stacey and I. People were hurting with us. The splinter of grief was buried deep and they needed help removing it. Read more

  • Faith under fire

    I rarely allow my mind to recall the events surrounding the worst day of our married life. The day our son died. Today I will go there with the hope that somebody needs to hear this message and might be helped by telling it. I sat alone on the open staircase with a house full Read more

  • Peaceful Sleep

    Modern medicine is amazing. Stacey and I both had colonoscopy screens this past week. We both requested the drug propofol for our procedure. It puts you to sleep quickly, it is painless and you wake up alert without memory of anything that just happened. Stacey and I both agreed that the experience with propofol might Read more