Missin' my Bro...

My brother left for boot camp about two and a half weeks ago. Though his departure has left a bigger hole in the lives of my parents… I have really found myself missing him. And it’s going to get worse before it gets better…

My brother and I are almost polar opposites in many areas of our lives. Growing up together… we fought like most brothers do. Nothing huge or out of the ordinary. We didn’t hate each other, but we weren’t close either. There is a five year difference between us… it was one of those deals where if I wanted to hurt my brother, I could. If anybody else wanted to hurt my brother… I would really get defensive. Funny how that works. I can break his arm if I want to, but if anybody else wants to break his arm, they’ll have to go through me to do it.

Our toleration of each other started to turn, I’m guessing, around the time he started high school and the time that I was finishing up college. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, I guess… and for the better part of about eight years, Jeff has been one of my best friends. We’ve seen each other go through a lot. He was my best man when Melissa and I were married. I’ve seen him go through some difficult circumstances and relationships. He watched me struggle through my early years of ministry as a naïve, thin-skinned pastor (ok, I'm STILL naive and thin-skinned). I’ve watched him wrestle with what he’d like to do with the rest of his life. Through all of life’s twists and turns… we’ve remained close.

One of the areas in life where Jeff and I both share a passion is baseball. We both love the game of baseball. We both have faithfully followed the St. Louis Cardinals through the great years (recently) and the not so great years (the early 90’s). I guess I am really missing him right now because I really love talking baseball with him. I would love to get his take on who should fill the last bullpen spot… of if Junior Spivey has played himself out of the starting line-up. In the past, if there has been any dramatic Cardinal wins, he is the first person I think of to call. So on Opening Day, if the Cardinals start with a win against the Phillies, normally he would be the first person I would call. I will really miss that this year… I really will.

Even so… I am very proud of his decision to enlist. I am proud of him for various reasons… but one of the biggest is that I am not, nor would I have been at 23 years old, tough enough mentally to do what he’s doing. Just being honest. The first couple of months at college were tough enough for me… and that’s with access to the outside world and various friends from my home church that were on campus with me. I didn’t have anybody yelling at me… I didn’t have to take public showers… etc. etc.

Here’s hoping that basic training is going as well as possible for him… and that when he does finally emerge… he will be a better, stronger man because of it.

All this to say that I miss him right now and that when he finally emerges from boot camp in about four weeks, it will be great to be able to talk with him again. We’ll have a lot of baseball to catch up on, that’s for dang sure…