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  • One Down, Two to Go (3)
    • Leighton Cubbage: Malcolm- Great blog. I cant stand being away from my wife for an afternoon. You guys are...
    • Carol Henderson: Congratulations to both of you. I imagine you on the lake and hope you’ll have plenty of time...
  • Daring to Believe (1)
    • mary bea: Hey there, don’t forget that you modeled well that sometimes we have to acknowledge our limits. I...
  • Life is More than Work (3)
    • Charles Kinnaird: Malcolm, I just put this on my blog yesterday – something I wrote years ago, probably after...
    • Pagan Chaplain: Malcolm, this sounds not only like a still, small voice, but one that is getting louder. Listen to...
  • Remember the Stones (4)
    • Bob Blackwell: Malcolm, thanks for the reminder that some of my closest times with God come from the messiness of my...
    • Marti Holmes: I find great strength and peace in the labyrinth….the comfort of the circle is reassuring and...

Forgiving Father

This is the sixth in a series on My Faith Journey, and #26 in the series Lessons from My Father.

One image of God I had growing up was to understand God as a loving and forgiving Father.

It was easier for me to imagine God this way because I had a father

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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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