Testing
Count Me Gone
When I’ve sailed across the Jordan
When I’ve reached the Canaan land
When this life on earth is over
When I’m in the Savior’s hand
Count me gone to all my sorrows
Count me gone to all my fears
Count me in the arms of Jesus
Count me crying no more tears
When I’ve lived my final days
When I’ve taken my last breath
When I’m buried in the grave
Laid down to my last rest
Count me living for the first time
Count me dancing in the stars
Count me safely raised to glory
Count me healed from all my scars
When the mountains have all crumbled
When the rivers all run dry
When the sun no longer warms us
When the stars no longer shine
Count me gone to all my worries
Count me gone to all my shame
Count me in the throng of angels
Count me holding my new name
Seventeen
Today is our 17th wedding anniversary. I can imagine being a better husband, but I cannot imagine having a better wife. At some point I’ll video and share the song I penned for Allyson/Us. For now, the words are below.
Update: Video Below
[v1]
Seventeen, now if you please
Has it been that long
Has it taken all that joy and
Pain to write this song
Seems like it was yesterday
You walked down the aisle
Oh such wonder, oh such beauty
Heaven in your smile
Oooooo
[v2]
The first year in the pain it tore
Our tender hearts in two
All that you held dear and holy
Was taken away from you
I thought that I could fix
The brokenness inside of you
Until I saw that all I had
Was broken pieces too
Oooooo
[v3]
After all this time it seems
That we have settled in
Learning how to love each other
Finding joy again
The circle of our love is like
The setting sun at night
After passing through the darkness
Rising with its light
Oooooo
[v4]
How I see us growing old
And deeper in this dream
All we’ve lost along the way
Is nothing it would seem
For we know our futures
They are held in the King’s hand
For now we hold each other closely
Passing through this land
Oooooo
Obituary – Mildred Ruth Voller
Voller, Mildred Ruth (Ruthie) – Age 69, of Little Elm, TX. Died August 5, 2014, at Ashford Hall Nursing Home in Irving, TX. A memorial service will be held on Tuesday, August 12, at 2pm at Denton Bible Church, 2300 E University Dr, Denton, TX 76209 (940) 297-6700. Pastor Kirk Voller (son) will be officiating. Those desiring may make contributions to Denton Bible Church listed above or Lion Hospice 2208 Hwy 121 #180 Bedford, TX (817) 268-2364.
Mrs. Voller was born on May 19, 1945 in Racine Wisconsin, the daughter of Warner and Mildred Parks. Ruthie was a graduate of Michigan State University and had an advanced degree in counseling and play therapy from the University of North Texas.
Ruthie married Douglas Voller on December 19, 1964. She and Doug raised three sons and Ruthie worked at various times as a high school home economics teacher, cheerleader coach, basketball coach and school counselor. She accompanied Doug to Bucharest, Romania, where she became active in orphanage volunteer work, and the Bucharest English Language Church.
Ruthie is survived by her husband, Doug, 3 sons, 6 grandchildren, 2 brothers, and 2 sisters: Kirk and daughter-in-law Missy of McMurray, Pennsylvania with grandchildren Cade and Kylie; Kameron and daughter-in-law Kymberly of Denton, Texas with grandchildren Braylyn, Brielle, and Kynsley; Chad and daughter-in-law Allyson of Medina, Ohio with grandchild Aiden. Her siblings are Bob Parks of Flint, Michigan with sister-in-law Jean; David Parks of Foley, Alabama with sister-in-law Vickie; Marion Gibbons of Kingwood, TX; and Elizabeth Havener of Kingwood, Texas with brother-in-law Victor.
The family extends special tribute to Lion Hospice.
Cheering Others’ Success
What’s up with that word, anyway… “Tidbit?” Tidbits are small and tasty, choice pieces.
Here’s an idea that may serve as a leadership tidbit:
– Leadership is cheering the success of others.
I’m sure we’ve all seen leadership exercised in many ways, some good and some bad. One behavior that seems common to me is the fear/jealousy of others’ success. It reminds me of the Aesop’s Fable about a dog and his reflection:
“It happened that a Dog had got a piece of meat and was carrying it home in his mouth to eat it in peace. Now on his way home he had to cross a plank lying across a running brook. As he crossed, he looked down and saw his own shadow reflected in the water beneath. Thinking it was another dog with another piece of meat, he made up his mind to have that also. So he made a snap at the shadow in the water, but as he opened his mouth the piece of meat fell out, dropped into the water and was never seen more.”
In one application of that story, I see the dog as being jealous of the other dog’s “success,” so much so that he lost awareness of the situation and blundered away his own. When I see a leader afraid or jealous of the success of those he leads, I think to myself, “Now there’s a leader whose team is probably looking for the first chance to jump.”
When you are leading from you current post, wherever that may be, I encourage you to be about the success of those around you. It may be a customer or a co-worker, maybe even a partner/vendor… Whoever they are, don’t be afraid of their success. Why? Because their success really is your success, and your success is not diminished, but rather enhanced by the success of those around you.
Home
I wouldn’t necessarily paint a picture of my mother as a home body. She was a fairly well traveled woman, having been to several countries and even living abroad for a few years in Romania. Lately, however, she has been quite fond of home.
When we last visited in May of this year, she could frequently be heard muttering that she just wanted “to go Home.” When people struggle with Alzheimer’s, it is common that they’ll remember familiar things and people of years long past. While this comes at the expense of shorter term memory, I like it that until her truly dying days (which we are now in the midst of) she longed for something so fundamentally familiar as Home.
While the sadness and sorrow of Mom’s final weeks, perhaps months, are upon us, there is also real joy mingled with the pain. Tears from both the joy and sorrow flow, at times together and at times apart, as I think of her idea of going Home. It brings her comfort to be home. Home is her place to be herself. Home is where you find Dad. Home is a place to rest. Home is where you can climb into bed, close your eyes, and doze off peacefully.
For her, for us, though, there is more to the idea of Home. Home is not just her house in Little Elm, TX, with the comforts of Dad’s presence and familiar surroundings. Home is, for the Christian, an eternal dwelling with God, whereby all the cares of this world are left behind. There we have no more pain, no more suffering, no more sorrow, no more sin. There we have an end to all the strife, and we have our non-earthbound bodies with healed brains and mended souls.
There’s no place like Home.
[v1]
Don’t you know I’ve got tickets on the morning train
And I’ve always tried to travel light
Though I’ve spent some time packing up my things
Gonna leave it all behind for everything
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
When the wheels of this train leave this town
[chorus]
All I want is to be home
All I want is to go home
[v2]
Don’t you know that I’ve shuffled ’round this place
I might forget your name but I’ll smile at your face
And I’ve heard my friends are comin’ into town
Gonna meet me at the church and sing me here and gone
Here I go, the wheels are turning ’round
All that I have lost will now be found
[chorus]
All I want is to be home
All I want is to go home
[bridge]
When I sail beyond the Jordan
And all my memories return
Oh I want to see how far I’ve come
And hear Him say, “Well done.”
[chorus]
All I want is to be home
All I want is to go home
Sometimes 3 a.m. Happens
There are days – or is it nights – when 3 a.m. happens. I wake up and there I am, awake. I am not tired or sleepy, I am somehow unable to get back to sleep, and it is simply time to get up.
It’s not that my mind is racing in any sort of crazy way, it’s just time to get up. There are any number of things that it seems like I could always be doing, but those things aren’t rushing through my head. It’s just me and 3 a.m. Does this ever happen to you?
These are actually some of my favorite moments in life, because in these early hours very little is happening and all seems peaceful. My wife is sleeping quietly beside me. Our son is a room away, tucked into his dreams. The dog, though awake as I sneak past him in the hallway, is groggy and not straining in the least to rise.
There is space for my thoughts, room for my mind to breathe… so little distraction at this hour. This is a beautiful spot in time.
It has been just over a year since I last posted here, but I hope to see that change in 2014. It’s not an official resolution or anything like that, I just think there will be more to write about this year, or perhaps simply more of a discipline to focus in on those things most valuable to me, of which one is writing.
Cheers!
– Chad
Do Not Forsake Me
Do Not Forsake Me
Words and music by Chad Voller
Answer me, O God
When I call to You
Father, do not turn away
Do not hide Your face
To my darkness bring Your light
Father, do not turn away
Be my guardian,
Constant guide and friend
Do not forsake me
Do not forsake me
Do not forsake me
Even to the end
Bang Bang
No, not a gun control post.
This bang bang is from the movie that Aiden watched today, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. And then he went to quiet time and made this:
Bang!
Things I Hung Up Yesterday
We had a quiet, relaxing day at home. It seemed to last forever, which was a good thing as I pondered it. Here are some photos of things I hung up on the walls while we quietly rested as a family.
Mirror in the Back Room
There are some cute extras in these mirror pictures. We decided the small pictures that had been where this mirror now resides were looking paltry there on the wall. Instead we moved this mirror here and hung it in their place.
Picture Frame in Back Room
This picture frame had hung in the kitchen along the same wall where the mirror was. This is a neat frame that can hold many pictures of your personal artwork. Have an artistic child who’s always creating? Don’t want to toss out all their neat pictures or just store them the basement? This heavy duty frame anchors with two screws in the back and swings open on the bottom to allow you simple access to place the next picture in and the entire set of interior pictures adjusts back to continue storing previous art.
The Window in the Kitchen
So we have this old window that’s been in our basement for a decade or so. It was one of those things we picked up along the way at a garage sale or something. Feels good to put it into use and it makes the this wall loads of fun!
Not a ton of work, but a lot of fun to see this work accomplished. Along the way I touched up the paint on the kitchen wall and the back room walls. A fine day of rest, indeed!