The Dean's Dilemma

This morning I received what I took to be an urgent call from Dean Prater at the University. We are close personal friends after serving in a professional capacity for many years. She has been through a terrible ordeal with the Chattanooga police department killing her son, Leslie, after he had resisted arrest when he was high on drugs. They filed suit against the department and won a settlement.

This morning, at lunch, we talked about forgiveness and learning to make peace with ourselves and move on. She said that she could hardly stand to stay in the house they retained in Chattanooga because of her anger and despair. I told her that free advice is worth what you pay for it but I urged her to go into those pent up places and make a step or two forward. Maybe they needed to stay pent up and maybe she should relinquish some of them to God so that she could be more free to find herself.

Strange, how much easier it is to give advice to others than it is to take the advice myself. I can only guess how much she is still hurting. But I can be her friend when she calls me urgently to have lunch. That much I can do for her.