Author: Paul Dercks

As my Sabbatical continues, I have remained focused on spending time with my children.  We have experienced some nice weather during the month of August and this allowed us to enjoy some time in our pond with friends and neighbors.

We have also had time to take a hike and enjoy more of the natural beauty of God’s creation.

My youngest son, Davis, completed his firearm safety requirement two weeks prior to the beginning of my Sabbatical.  During my Sabbatical, we competed in our first “hunt and cover” tournament and we missed only one target.  My son thought we won the tournament but I encouraged him to be cautiously optimistic.  We didn’t win the tournament since another team hit all the targets.  It was a great lesson for my son.  My son enjoys winning, but he despises losing even more.  We must be humble in our success, and gracious when we fall short of our goal.  Since the tournament, we have been practicing a lot.  My son is determined that we will not lose again.

Finally, we had some time for a history lesson.  Wisconsin has a proud history of logging.  As a result, we took some time to visit the “Big One”.  It is a cross-cut section of a Douglas Fir tree that is 586 years old and was 238 feet tall.  It was 98 feet tall and 133 years old before Columbus discovered America.

My time for my Sabbatical has come to an end.  It was nothing that I thought it would be, but everything it needed to be.  I have a stronger relationship with all three of my children.  Blessings.

During my Sabbatical, I have been focusing on relationships, specifically with my kids.  Since I spend a lot of time traveling and working away from home, the one thing my family misses the most from me is time.  During my Sabbatical, I have spent the majority of my time with my family.  We haven’t done anything extravagant, we have simply been together enjoying the simple things in life.  As we reconnect, we spent one day enjoying God’s beauty in a sunflower field.On a different day, I focused on spending some quality time with my wife on the golf course as we played in a golf outing to benefit our local school district.  I played the best golf of my life and I won a prize for the longest putt.  However, the biggest prize I won that day was spending time with my wife.

My service project is volunteering at Free SPIRIT (Special People in Riding Therapy) Riders.  It is a non-profit organization committed to enriching the lives of children and adults with disabilities through safe, therapeutic interaction with horses.  At Free SPIRIT Riders, the daily obstacles of frustrating disabilities are left behind for the freedom of a horse’s movement.  Students challenge the limits of their physical, cognitive, and emotional disabilities.  As a result, their physical, cognitive, and emotional health improve and they build confidence, pride, and self-esteem.

Two students have been assigned to me, so I may build trust with them (building relationships and the process of relating never goes on Sabbatical).  My first goal with a student is to relieve any anxiety the rider may be feeling.  The rider must feel comfortable and be at ease.  So, my first rider fell!!  She didn’t fall off the horse.  She fell asleep and we ended the session early!!  This has only happened one other time in the history of Free SPIRIT Riders.  I thought I was suppose to build the self-esteem of the rider, but my self-esteem is at an all-time high.  Don’t worry, my wife is always available to keep me humble and stop my self-esteem from turning into arrogance.  My wife accused me of boring her to sleep.  That is a complete possibility, but we can’t argue with the end result, she was comfortable.  She fell asleep!!  So, next session I throttled back on the comfort initiative and increased the level of interaction.  She is making tremendous progress.

My second rider is currently struggling with life and is depressed.  Her cognitive abilities are sharp enough to know that other kids are not kind to her.  As a result, she cries often and doesn’t want to leave home for anything, but to come ride with me.  I have been able to relate and build a relationship with her.  Some of her favorite activities include softly hitting me with a stick (used for playing tag with other riders) and drenching me with water (the water is meant to stay in a cup while riding to build a better sense of balance).  I may have turned myself into the occasional drenched human pinata, but I have built a strong relationship with this student.  However, I don’t allow her to play “tag” or “water games” every session.  She has an infectious laugh and it saddens me to know that she only laughs when riding a horse.  My goal is to pour enough love into her heart that it remains with her the rest of her day.

Aren’t we all disabled to some degree?  I am not disabled physically or cognitively, but my soul is disabled.  I am a sinner.  My disability is something I pursue reducing as I strive to have a heart like Jesus, full of love and peace.  Just as Jesus saved my soul, Jesus also longs to improve my heart.  Often our soul is connected to Jesus, but our heart is not altered.  Not only must we trust Jesus for salvation, but allow the love from Jesus to transform our heart.  The more time I spend with these students, the more my heart is filled with love and peace.  Let your heart be transformed!

At the beginning of my Sabbatical, I have struggled with figuring out how to balance my time.  There is so much I want to accomplish.  I have a road map: a time to rest, time for redemption, time for reflection, time for reward and repair, time for relationships, time for refocus.  All of my expectations have a common denominator, time.  I am acutely aware that the “Clock of Life” is only wound once.  As a result, I strive to accomplish as much as possible with my allotted time.  Time cannot be saved for another day.  Therefore, I naturally resist the idea of slowing down.  Since God has given me the gift of time, I prayed to God for some guidance.  God wasted no time.  I woke up the next morning to discover two dead fish floating in the pond, a bass with a bluegill stuck in it’s mouth.  The bass, like myself, attempted to accomplish a lot.  However, the bass bit off more than it could chew, or even swallow.  The bass died along with it’s goal, the bluegill.  I will probably never lower my expectations of what I want to accomplish.  However, I need to maintain a healthy pace at which I accomplish my goals.  I haven’t slowed down completely yet, but I have shifted into a lower gear.  I am also trying to take smaller bites and eat slower!!