How do we cope?

Thank you Lois for the pic of our crew last night!

Sunday the weatherman assured us of a 100% chance of scattered storms and severe thunderstorms possible. I guess that means it must have been raining SOMEWHERE? We rolled out to our Woodgrove “Bike and Ice (cream)” ride just the same and we all got home to shower because Mother Nature didn’t. Last night for our Hastings Skatepark – “Summer Send Off” – the weatherman yet again predicted I shouldn’t bother procuring eats or splitting any wood – thunderstorms were a foreseen certainty…

What a beautiful night!

Brats were grilled, dogs were grilled, chili was in the house for embellishment, double stuffed cookies, chilled drinks, and chips aplenty filled the picnic tables under the pavilion… THANK YOU to all who have supplied food and GENEROUS donations this year!

“Randall,” Joseph asked over my shoulder, “are there going to be any contests?”

“CONTESTS?” I laughed swiveling around in my chair, “My brother, tonight was about stepping up the food but I hadn’t planned on any contests! If the guys want to throw down some of their best stuff we’ll line the park and cheer’em on though.”

“Okay, because they are doing that right now,” Joseph replied.

So our Woodgrove Family along with other friends uprooted our lawn chairs and moved from the cool shade by the grill to the cool shade next to the skating surface…

AND WHAT A SHOW THEY CAN PUT ON!!

These ATHLETES make the difficult look easy and the impossible very manageable!!

Most everybody were on high performance scooters (costing more than a GOOD bicycle) and they were FLYING! Crazy tail whips, double tail whips, soaring 360’s all done with smooth measured precision. You all should go down there on a nice evening and marvel at them!

Then Jeff – carrying the torch for the BMX discipline – unleashed this spinning, twisting, forward and backward run that I can’t even describe! The rub of his tires against the ground was about all you heard but if you were a trained listener, breath inhaled and held then released at just the right time followed immediately by a weather changing deep rapid inhalation might have been observed too!

Applause accompanied “OOHS and AHHS” like chili on a dog!

Truly a spectacle!!

And in keeping with life…a few falls occurred and a few dramatic “tuck and roll” tumbles which brought us from our seats to check if all was well for the fallen – and thankfully it was!

Then I witnessed something I had NEVER seen in the Skatepark…

But before I recount it, let me give you a touch of the technical terminology of the park. Where two perpendicular surfaces athletes ride meet, these surfaces are often joined by a metallic piece conducive to sliding over with the flat base of a skateboard deck or truck, scooter deck, or BMX freestyle peg – this round or angled length of union is called “coping”.

So… Logan had been doing some off-the-chart scooter tricks along with the other athletes but as the night wore down he rolled up the curved face of our five foot high quarter pipe to join his friends gathered on the horizontal deck. He jumped off as he neared the top, his feet landing squarely on the tubular coping…

But he ran out of steam, and for what seemed like an eternity, he hung between the safety of reaching the deck or falling backward down onto the steep metallic slope!!

Over the last 13 years I have seen some hard falls with limbs twisting and body stuff slamming and breaking but this one would have been top 10 for sure and my heart was in my throat and I wondered, “After all that intense athleticism don’t tell me Logan is going to take this fall doing something he does 100 times a day!!!?”

Suddenly Nate realized what was happening and thrust his scooter forward and at the last possible second Logan caught a hold on the handlebar…

WHEW!!!

But that wasn’t the end of it!

Scooters have wheels and Logan’s momentum was heading for the void behind him over the thick hard metal deck – and the scooter rolled that way with him!! That’s when Nate braced himself against the evil enemy of physics and pulled Logan safely up!!

Suddenly I found myself catching MY breath!!

That would have been a head slamming body bouncing disaster if not for the quick reaction of a good friend!!

So how do we cope?

We may head out to do something we do a 100 times a day and suddenly for reasons outside our control things go disastrously sideways on us. Sirens blared throughout the evening last night as just two miles away a pickup truck crossed the center line on a busy state route and slammed headlong into an oncoming car. Helicopters airlifted the injured.

We may never know when dire tragedy can touch us!

This last Saturday we gathered to celebrate the life of an incredible lady whose accomplishments on the bicycle make me look like a hobbyist! She was caring, connecting and communing constantly in creative ways with SO MANY people she loved dearly! Almost everyone present found it amazing this wonderful lady did for SO MANY what she had done so personally for them – they felt like they were the only people who were blessed by such a heart-to-heart friendship! And no one felt neglected, for it just amazed them all with the depth of this lady’s genuine LOVE!!

How do we cope with a loss that extraordinary?

Who do cope when we teeter on the brink of pain, flailing our arms desperately to reach a place of security or haven?

We need a friend!

We need a quick reacting friend like Nate!

We need someone who recognizes an immediate need, doesn’t hesitate, and braces for what they are going to have to do to keep us from the gaping maw of pain we are about to fall into – or need hauling out of!

We need a friend who not only throws us a lifeline but anchors it for us! A tangle of rope doesn’t help the drowning unless there are strong hands at the other end! And the more the merrier – because sometimes we can’t cope with the weight of suffering or calamity and it takes a team, a cadre, a cohort, and a FAMILY to draw us back into the warm embrace of security.

AND when it gets truly sketchy with our souls involved too – We need the Christ!!

Then Jesus got into the boat and started across the lake with his disciples. Suddenly, a fierce storm struck the lake, with waves breaking into the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”

Jesus responded, “Why are you afraid? You have so little faith!” Then he got up and rebuked the wind and waves, and suddenly there was a great calm.

The disciples were amazed. “Who is this man?” they asked. “Even the winds and waves obey him!” Matthew 8:23-27 NLT

Logan didn’t have time to go “wake Jesus up” or even throw up a quick faith-rich prayer, so my prayer of thanksgiving includes Nate this morning and in that contemplation it includes YOU ALL because if you are reading this YOU have had a hand in making my life richer and more secure for your friendship having helped me cope!

Give thanks for those people in your life today and if the storm seems bigger than any of them – go wake up Jesus – you’ll be amazed how he can help YOU cope! AND then go find a good church family and enjoy the best of both worlds as your coping skills will grow and grow!!!