Gone Fishin!

Dave and his lovely wife Wanda   Hi folks and happy New Year Yesterday Tammy and I went Sanford NC for the funeral of my friend CH (LTC) Dave Spears. I worked with Dave at FT Bragg on my last assignment. He entered heaven on Christmas Day after a yearlong fight with brain cancer. At the funeral there was a host of friends, colleagues and even a general or two paying tribute to a life well lived but more importantly to a God who saves.  Dave loved to hunt, fish and make knives. He was not a touchy feely type at all! Probably why he made a great chaplain to the hardened men of Special Forces.  Dave surrendered his life to Jesus in the late 70's and not long after that gave his life to the ministry, bible college and seminary. He worked his way through both undergrad and his master’s degree with the ultimate goal of becoming a chaplain in the Army. He did so 16 years ago at the age of 36. Dave led countless soldiers to Christ, deployed 3 times both to Ir

So today at 4:00 I was the Grinch. Seriously. Sometimes during this time of the year I get frustrated. I get frustrated with obligatory visits, the pressure to buy gifts, the disruption to life's normal rhythm and to be quite honest I'm not sure what any of this stuff at Christmas has to do with Christ. Don't you? Then I start thinking about it and I get mad, really mad. Your probably thinking, "Brad that never happens to me", well God bless you...you are freed from having to endure this post. But for the rest of you, hang on it gets better. My mom wanted me and the kids to roll down to Belmont to visit with our cousins Betsy and Lisa. Betsy lives in my Uncle Bill's old house on the same farm where my Granddaddy grew up and became the man we all knew and loved. I love going there. It conjures up so many sweet memories for me about being helped along in life by a great man. But today, I didn't want to go. It was just one of those days. I did w