Soap Box

Sunday, January 31^st marked the first day that mom and I have been back to World Outreach Church in Murfreesboro since dad’s funeral on July 10^th 2020.

We’ve made it a regular Sunday morning ritual to watch the live stream of the WOC service, but mom wasn’t ready to go back, and then there were COVID-19 concerns as well, but I think mostly it was the memories it was likely to bring up.

Had it not been for longtime CDB guitar player, Chris Wormer, it probably would have been even longer before we made it back, but mom heard from Pastor Allen Jackson’s (no relation) wife Kathy, that Chris was going to be part of the WOC worship band this week, and that ended up being the spark we needed to get back into the building which was where thousands said their goodbyes to dad.

Mom started getting emotional when we pulled up in the parking lot, when the realization that dad’s funeral was the last time she was there.

We got to see Chris and his wife Amy before the service, along with Pastor Allen’s parents, George & Betty, and mom went back and forth being strong and then weepy, but she held up well overall

It was a fantastic worship service, and I had been missing worshipping live with other people; singing and raising hands to the Lord with other believers is a powerful feeling.

The WOC Worship teams started off with the Johnny Cash arrangement of “Ain’t No Grave,’ and then Michael W. Smith’s “Waymaker,” and it was just what I had been needing and missing.

The last time that the three of us were there together would have been Christmas Eve Service in 2019.

Dad loved WOC and felt more at home there than any church he had attended, at least in the later years of his life. Pastor Allen is just the most down to earth, relatable pastor I’ve known, and not afraid to talk about his flaws which is refreshing. 

He’s often said that if he’s honest, what he really wants is Allen’s will be done with all the power of heaven behind him, but he knows that’s not how it works, but I think we can all relate to that feeling.

The WOC service this weekend was an important step for mom and me. In a crazy upside-down world – even without dad’s passing – it was a little bit of much-needed normalcy in our lives.

We need to do more things like this, and had we not been living through the new Black Plague we would have probably gotten out more just to try and have the distractions.

Mom, and her friend, Michelle – who lost her husband just over a month before dad died - have been going to a grief counseling group at a nearby church, and they seem to be getting a lot out of it. I’m there for support and have spoken for mom when she’s gotten emotional & had difficulty talking.

Writing the soapboxes about dad have been my overall grief therapy, but there is one thing that was mentioned in one of the sessions that did resonate with me is that grief is the price for love.

If we didn’t experience grief, then we never really experienced love.

That is the brutal price of love, but the alternative is never loving or being loved, and that’s no way to live.

There was a great quote from the movie ‘The Shawshank Redemption,’ “Get busy living, or get busy dying.”

Grief is rough, but life must go on, and our loved ones would want us to keep on living.

I cherish the memories I have of my dad, and would not trade them for anything. Grief has had to take a backseat in my life just because of business circumstances, but I will continue to jump back in time and share more memories as my schedule allows.

Just know that when I do, it’s helping me deal with the loss I’m feeling. I pray that it’s helping some of you folks too.

What do you think?

Pray for our troops, our police, the peace of Jerusalem, and for our nation.

God Bless America!

#BenghaziAintGoingAway

—  Charlie Daniels, Jr.