The week before last, I had the pleasure and privilege of reading Tenuous by S.K. Badgett. S.K., aka Stan wrote a delightful autobiographical sketch which kept me riveted from cover to cover. I recommend it to all readers, but would highly recommend it to the children of the 1950's and 1960's, because he so deftly describes the era and what it was like to grow up then. It will hold special meaning for those of us who started on the path to the "Celestial City" with Pilgrim in the '60's and the '70's.
With full disclosure of my relationship to Stan, I must say that I have known him over 30 years and I've had the privilege to call him and his family my friends during that period, as well as, brothers and sisters in Christ. So, it was from that perspective that I anxiously read and learned more of his journey. He even made an oblique reference to me there, but not so by name only my participation in a portion of his life. What he does do in many instances though is make references to numerous people I do know, and needless to say the memories came flooding back. This is due much in part to Stan's deftness in telling of his life in both a captivating way and by his superb skill in writing and handling of the English language.
From the time I met Stan up to the reading of this book, he was always somewhat of an enigma. Not that he purposely would hold himself in some mysterious way, but rather I knew there was so much more there than what met the eye. Sadly, I was a rather self-absorbed twenty-something and Stan was married, raising four children, working in the coal mines, juggling life and ambition. Still, I knew there was more, and I admired him for what I knew, and even didn't know. I knew he worked in the dark, danger of the coal mines and I looked up to him for it, because I knew that is not where his heart was. Even then it seemed a profession he simply was not designed for, but he worked hard there to make a better life for his family and himself. I, also, knew he was a rock climber, but that was a total mystery to me as one who never understood the mindset of the people who did it. Nevertheless, I knew it was a skill and a passion to be admired.
My biggest regret at reading Tenuous was the realization that I had missed so much of the life of this remarkable man and his family. Our own paths had diverged in the early '80's - Stan to finish raising his children and making a life for he and Doreen and mine to start my own family and continue along the path of work and life. I thank God that He led Stan in writing Tenuous. Now that I have had such an intimate look in to the Badgett's life, I feel as though I will have to sit for many hours with Stan and lay out my lfe to him. After reading his book, I feel that I owe it to him.
I praise God for recently re-uniting us in our common bond of Christian brotherhood and of love of Jesus. Now, it seems that I have a lot of ground to make up and armed with a new, fuller understanding of who he is, I can hardly wait to continue our journey to Everlasting communion with our Lord. Read it. You won't be disappointed and you will be the richer for it. It is a story of a regenerated man responding to God by stepping out in faith with a "tenuous" grip. What a honor it was to see that faith in motion.
With full disclosure of my relationship to Stan, I must say that I have known him over 30 years and I've had the privilege to call him and his family my friends during that period, as well as, brothers and sisters in Christ. So, it was from that perspective that I anxiously read and learned more of his journey. He even made an oblique reference to me there, but not so by name only my participation in a portion of his life. What he does do in many instances though is make references to numerous people I do know, and needless to say the memories came flooding back. This is due much in part to Stan's deftness in telling of his life in both a captivating way and by his superb skill in writing and handling of the English language.
From the time I met Stan up to the reading of this book, he was always somewhat of an enigma. Not that he purposely would hold himself in some mysterious way, but rather I knew there was so much more there than what met the eye. Sadly, I was a rather self-absorbed twenty-something and Stan was married, raising four children, working in the coal mines, juggling life and ambition. Still, I knew there was more, and I admired him for what I knew, and even didn't know. I knew he worked in the dark, danger of the coal mines and I looked up to him for it, because I knew that is not where his heart was. Even then it seemed a profession he simply was not designed for, but he worked hard there to make a better life for his family and himself. I, also, knew he was a rock climber, but that was a total mystery to me as one who never understood the mindset of the people who did it. Nevertheless, I knew it was a skill and a passion to be admired.
My biggest regret at reading Tenuous was the realization that I had missed so much of the life of this remarkable man and his family. Our own paths had diverged in the early '80's - Stan to finish raising his children and making a life for he and Doreen and mine to start my own family and continue along the path of work and life. I thank God that He led Stan in writing Tenuous. Now that I have had such an intimate look in to the Badgett's life, I feel as though I will have to sit for many hours with Stan and lay out my lfe to him. After reading his book, I feel that I owe it to him.
I praise God for recently re-uniting us in our common bond of Christian brotherhood and of love of Jesus. Now, it seems that I have a lot of ground to make up and armed with a new, fuller understanding of who he is, I can hardly wait to continue our journey to Everlasting communion with our Lord. Read it. You won't be disappointed and you will be the richer for it. It is a story of a regenerated man responding to God by stepping out in faith with a "tenuous" grip. What a honor it was to see that faith in motion.
You can find it on Amazon.com -bgp
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