George, Ginger, Scott
I was going to use “We All Need A Ginger” for my title, but I wasn’t sure how that would come across…
In my case, I’m talking about Ginger Vieira, and there’s no substitute for her. But if you can’t get yourself a Ginger (Vieira!), then a good friend will do just fine. Either way, you need somebody, and I’ll explain why.
Late in 2011 I started looking for a church to attend. Earlier in the year, a good friend, and pastor, lit the fire for Christ in my life. Just months later he was tragically taken by lung cancer. It happened so fast. As I continued the journey he started me on, I knew that one of the next steps was to find a church to belong to. It doesn’t bother me to say that his church didn’t do it for me.
So I spent a few months visiting a number of local churches trying to find a good fit. During one of the visits I listened to a message that made me think of Ginger. This message made me think about how much I appreciate her, value her skills, and treasure her friendship.
This message was all about cleaning out the garage, and like many church messages it was heavy in metaphor. This pastor was talking about doing spring cleaning in the garage. His regular ways would have him grab the giant push-broom and do a few circuits of the floor, getting the big dirt out of the main areas. He’d do these big sweeps and call it clean.
He ignored the crevices and corners of his garage because they were the scary parts. Dark and dim, potentially full of big, scary spiders and insects, and who knows what else. If he ignored these areas he wouldn’t have to face the scary things that have been swept aside and ignored.
But his wife’s tools of choice were a small broom, a dustpan, and a flashlight. She would inspect the dark and scary corners, which, when illuminated and examined, really weren’t that scary after all.
This got me thinking about working with Ginger (after I was done thinking about Jesus 🙂 ). For many areas in my diabetes life we were digging into some scary things. And just as I was ready to turn away and ignore the mess, Ginger would hand me a big spotlight and put her hand on my shoulder. She let me know I wasn’t alone in examining that corner of my garage.
Many of the messes are still there, as it’s taken a lifetime of sweeping things aside to make them what they are today. But Ginger has helped me chip away at some of the fear involved in self-inspection, which has gotten me started on cleaning the mess rather than adding to it.
For that I am forever grateful.
A friend and a flashlight is sometimes all it takes to push through a fear that is holding you back.
Love this post! And I hope you find a church where you’re comfortable. I absolutely love mine, and I want that for you. Yay Jesus. And I haven’t met Ginger, but I so very much want to! Especially after those videos with Mike. I just want to sit and laugh with them.
This was a really nice post. I will admit first of all that I am very non-religious but that does not mean I did not get the point of this post. It was so touching. and really constantly reminds me how much I wish we all lived in a community close together. Ginger amazes me everyday and I can’t help but wish I had one too! thanks for this.
What a beautiful post, Scott! I’m so excited to meet Ginger later this year!! 🙂
what a beautiful love letter you’ve written to your friend here! i smile every time i read one of her posts or watch one of her videos! 🙂
Absolutely love this, Scott! I’m so appreciative that you are one of the people who helped me realize that I needed a flashlight, and helped get that flashlight into my hands to shine into the darkest corners.
Scott, I am glad you have such valuable people in your life. We all need encouragement and support, especially from people who care about the well being of others. I think Ginger is a very positive person and I admire her greatly.
Scott Johnson! I SO ADMIRE YOU!!!
Everyone has dark corners worth shining a light onto…but not everyone can talk about them aloud, or even think about finding the flashlight in the first place. Courage! Courage describes you quite perfectly.
Love love love,
Ginger
Guess I better get some batteries for my flashlight because I have lots of dark scary corners that need cleaning too. I hate spiders!
I love that you and I both wrote about Ginger today. I may have driven 100 miles yesterday but it was so worth it to see her. Just sitting next to her improved my mood about 1000%. She is just a gem!!
Mwah!!! Mike and I so appreciated your birthday road trip 🙂 You are one tough cookie, as sweet as any diabetic can be :), and silly to boot. Mwah!
xoxoxo
G
Oh Scott! I absolutely love this post! It is so true..in our faith and in our lives whether we have T1D or not we need to look into all the dark little corners as well and clean them out
!! So I have to ask, was that pastor’s church a fit? And oh my goodness, I really want to meet Ginger! I bought her book for Robby, but her look on life sounds like it can be used by all of us! T1’s, T2’s and us T3’s as well!
Hi Jeanne!
As a matter of fact, that church was not a fit. But I have found one that feels right.
You’ll love Ginger. I’m quite sure you’ll have a chance to meet her somewhere along the way. She’ll love you too!
Her Science Experiment book is pretty diabetes focused, but we’re all trying to talk her into writing a book on life in general…