Comments

  • That We May Be One (2)
    • Charles Kinnaird: Thanks for sharing, Malcolm. Your story about the patient dying from heart disease and his father...
  • A Day to Remember (4)
    • Matthew Ellis: May we have permission to share this on our website in full with a link back to this site? It’s...
    • Sandra Langston: Malcolm – Thank you for sharing your prayer for those of us who were unable to attend the...
  • The Laying On of Hands (12)
    • Simon Bovinett: Malcolm: This isn’t so much a response to your post and it is to thank you for your years of...
    • Angie Wright: These words: “Finally, I want to share a secret. YOU too are already ordained. God’s hands were...
    • Margaret Mary: We are very proud to have you as our son-in law. God has blessed you and all the people you touch....
    • mary bea: Beautiful! I have heard it said the people ordain their “clergy.” Your life speaks to that....

A Good Death

This post is the twenty-sixth in a series, “Lessons from my Father, Lewis Marler,” who lived from 1921-1998.  He died 12 years ago on Memorial Day, May 26, 1998.

It had been a long night with little sleep as the sun began to rise on Memorial Day in 1998.  My stepmom had come into the

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A Peace Beyond Understanding

This post is the twenty-fifth in a series, “Lessons from my Father, Lewis Marler,” who lived from 1921-1998.  He died 12 years ago on Memorial Day, May 26, 1998.

On the Sunday before Memorial Day, my father became weaker and was not able to respond verbally anymore.

His breathing was shallow and he slowly slipped

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Coaching for Life

This post is the twenty-fourth in a series, “Lessons from my Father, Lewis Marler,” who lived from 1921-1998.  He died 12 years ago on Memorial Day, May 26, 1998.

As part of the hospice care at home for my father, we stopped all of his twenty-four medications except for those that helped to control his

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Last Days

This post is the twenty-third in a series, “Lessons from my Father, Lewis Marler,” who lived from 1921-1998.  He died 12 years ago on Memorial Day, May 26, 1998.

My father’s physician called a local hospice and my dad was headed home from the hospital in an ambulance.  A hospital bed was delivered along with

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Hospice Time

This post is the twenty-second in a series, “Lessons from my Father, Lewis Marler,” who lived from 1921-1998.  He died 12 years ago on May 26, 1998.

It was approximately a week before Memorial Day when my stepmom called to say that my dad had been admitted to the hospital, again.  I drove the familiar

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Dear Dad

This post is the twenty-first in a series, “Lessons from my Father, Lewis Marler,” who lived from 1921-1998.  He died 12 years ago today.

Dear Dad,

I’ve been thinking about you tonight on the twelfth anniversary of your death.  I am on a 16 hour night shift responding to a variety of crises

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Peace within Chaos

Sometimes days go by, maybe weeks or months, where there is routine and predictability in life.  There is a rhythm that feels natural and right.  We even fool ourselves into thinking we are in control of our own destiny.

And then something shifts, and we wake up and realize that our life has changed.  Sometimes

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A Liberal Conservative

This post is the twentieth in a series, “Lessons from my Father, Lewis Marler,” who lived from 1921-1998.

My father was a conservative Baptist pastor in the sense that he was traditional in most of his theological beliefs.

On the other hand hand my father also rejected being called a fundamentalist. He had many

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Humble Roots

This post is the nineteenth in a series, “Lessons from my Father, Lewis Marler,” who lived from 1921-1998.

My father was a “country boy” who grew up in Tuscaloosa and Hale counties in rural, west Alabama as the youngest of seven children.  His father was a sharecropper during the week and a pastor on

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Overcoming Depression

This post is the eighteenth in a series, “Lessons from my Father, Lewis Marler,” who lived from 1921-1998.

When my mother died in 1965, my father battled with various levels of depression off and on for the next thirty-three years until his death.  I do not mean he was incapacitated by his depression, because he

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