Keep Me Young, South Dakota

If you want an uneventful life, don’t hang out with the Tuggles.

As Tim drove Lynn and me up the side of a snowy hilltop in the Black Hills of South Dakota with a drop-off to our lefthand side and I insecurely bounced around on the middle console of this old beater truck, I found myself saying to them, “You two keep me young.” While simultaneously praying that that wouldn’t turn into “You two kill me young.”

I tell you what, buddy, I’ve wondered most every day since Monday if I was about to be seeing the Lord’s face. From getting stranded due to a snowstorm after 20 hours of travel, to a solo sleepover in a random town hotel, to rescuing fellow snowstorm victims out of ditches along the interstate, to closing my eyes on that console with sweaty palms, I think I’ve met my quota for heart-pounding circumstances for 2015. Tim and Lynn will send you out with a bang.

But no “yes” that we say to Jesus is void of eventfulness, and I wouldn’t trade this crazy life I lead for any other. In a few months, Lord willing, we’ll have a book in our hands and I will put the most adventurous season of my life thus far on the shelves.

Until then, I’ll just try to stay young and not dead.