Emotional Day

An Editorial (Of Sorts)
By M. Chad Durham

Yesterday was a very emotional day for me. It shouldn't have been but it was. The day began early this morning, shortly after midnight, when one of my many editors decided to throw down the gauntlet and give all his writers an ultimatum. Maybe I was a target; maybe I wasn't. I sure felt like one and I probably took the whole thing more personal than I should have but my opinion is that when somebody asks you to make a commitment to them and you make it, then they should be willing to make that same kind of commitment back to you.

Or maybe we Texans just like to do what we say we're going to do even if the rest of the world doesn't understand why. Texans don't flip-flop on every time the wind blows. If we did, we'd never be able to keep our word. The wind blows much-too-much here in West Texas. We mean what we say and we do what we say we'll do. It's that simple. Texans are men and women of their word.

Regardless, I spent most of the day feeling very unappreciated.

I'm also really nervous about tomorrow. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day for me. It's Texas vs. OU at 11 AM. At 2:00, MCS Homecoming game. At 4:50, I have two tickets to Friday Night Lights. And then I have to finish my sermon for Sunday morning. And I don't think Mack can beat OU. So. I'm nervous.

Then I went over to Midland for Midland Christian's Homecoming! I got to see almost all my old kids... Pakay, Matt, Taylor, Sterling, Coop, Jacob, Joel, Kenneth, et. al. It was so good to see those kids. The only one I didn't get to see that I really wanted to see was Jerrod. Pakay had to give me a bear hug and I told Jacob I was going to have him come preach soon. They were all having so much fun but they weren't having too much fun to share with me just how much they missed having me as their teacher.

(Sometimes I just don't understand God. I don't understand why He gives us a taste of something good only to pull it away from us or take it away. What lesson is He teaching me? Sometimes I think He just taunts me, like a Duncan Yo-Yo dropping something good my way only to yank it away every time I try to grab hold.)

Matt took it another step. But then again Matt generally does take things a little deeper. He asked me how my writing was going and even though I didn't go into all the sordid details of my present frustration (just as I haven't in this editorial) I told him that one of my editors was really giving me a hard time.

He said, "Chad, you need to just do your own thing anyway."

He's so right. So here I am.

Thanks again for all your love and support.