Rick Beeman

  It hit me about half way through my day. It was around 1:00 I think.  I thought to myself, I’m having a pretty good day.  Now that revelation might seem commonplace in ordinary circumstances.  Yet circumstances for me have been anything but ordinary.  The roller coaster continues.  I am trying to temper myself though.  I remember a sermon I heard from TD Jakes several years back.  “Don’t let your highs get too high and don’t let your lows get too low.  When you’re experiencing a high, make a deposit in the bank.  That way when your lows return you can make a withdrawal to balance out.  Or it was something to that effect.  I really feel I’m being tested on that philosophy.  The lows were pretty darn low this past week as I realize the many prayers that I have prayed might not be answered in the way I desire the most.  That harsh reality hit me….Hard.  It felt like my hope and joy were sucked away like a vacuum i...

  I’ve had so many horrible days and good days recently. I feel like I’m flipping back and forth.  That’s when a medium day like today happens and it throws me for a loop.  No great insight to share, Nothing really good or bad happened today and I suppose that is a good thing.  I have two really busy days in my week, Monday and Thursday. Today was one of those days.  Normally I choose to exercise with my spare hour or two but today I’m choosing sleep. (I stayed up too late watching the Super Bowl last night.)   I chose this schedule of busyness so I’m not alone that often.  Yet sometimes that wears on me.  I’m trying to be careful not to waste too much time.  I do watch a lot of movies/tv but that’s primarily during meal times.  I don’t ever eat alone, instead I watch a show while I eat so I don’t feel so alone.  That seems to work.  I am still charging hard after God.  I know this mental and physical space is only tempora...

  This isn’t going to be a long one today but I thought I should write a bit. After such a tough week It ended on a high note.  It actually was a good and happy day.  I’m back to feeling hope again after a week of feeling like I was emotionally kicked in the teeth.  What was different about this turnaround is that I didn’t have my daughters this weekend to help lift my mood or distract me.  I spent the entire weekend alone.  I say alone, but I was with God the entire time.  It really was a revelation.  Men are fixers, we want to fix things.  So God clearly spoke to me, I am to do nothing.  That sounds so counter-intuitive.  When I’ve tried to fix my situation(s) in the past I usually only mess things up more.  I am totally relying upon God at this point.  There are still moments of extreme despair but also moments of peace.  I’m learning not to over-react to the despair.  I know that God will see me through, I ju...

  It’s been a really difficult week for me. Growing up in the church, I was taught from a young age that if you believe hard enough you can pray anything into existence.  Mountain into the sea? No problem, it just takes the faith of the mustard seed (which is tiny.)  Well I’ve been praying, praying praying for my situation to change.  I came to the realization that no matter how hard I pray or for how long, no matter how much faith I have, my situation might not change. That hurt and it hurt bad.   This slow realization (I’ve been in denial a lot, thinking my faith would pull me through) that my situation might not change hit me hard this week.  The emotional pain was palpable.  Despite my grief and my temporary darkness, I’m one of the happiest and most positive people you’ll ever meet.  At least I try to come across that way.  I feel like I haven’t been “me” for a year now.  There will be moments of levity but it’s been a struggle....

  Yesterday was such a horribly intense day. It just sucked for a myriad of reasons.  I was just awestruck at the intense emotional and psychological anguish I was under.  I felt like I should just curl up on a fetal position and just wish everything away.  But I knew that the intensity would pass, although I hoped it would.  In my mind I pictured my hair flying back being toppled over by an intense psychological bomb exploding.  The pain and anguish were real.  As much as I’m trying to pray reality away, the more I’m slowly starting to accept that maybe my reality won’t change.  Maybe yesterday was my day of true acceptance of it, but I didn’t want to accept it.  It hurt and it hurt bad.  I wrote last week of the concept of “Spiritual Novocain” where in some circumstances I should feel pain but I don't. Yesterday I felt it.  It was the opposite of spiritual novocain.  In a metaphorical/emotional sense, this was me going to get...

  Today sucked.  It was a very hard day.  I felt like I was punched in the mouth.  I know I don’t share a lot of details in this blog in order to protect some.  As I was telling my broadcasting class today as they were telling their stories, the details are important in order to paint a more complete picture in the imaginations of your watchers/listeners.  When you share only the facts with no details it’s like sketching a picture using only pencil and shades of gray.  When you add details to the story it’s like you are adding colors and pictures.  So my apologies in advance for only sketching in pencil.   Just like a normal punch I was stunned at first and very disheartened.  Then something strange happened….nothing.  Nothing happened yet the further I moved away from the event the more relief I got.  I didn’t even cry out to God nor did I pray or praise.  Instead I just sat in it and didn’t make it worse.  Minu...