So lately I've been thinking about how fast everything seems to be moving these days. I feel like a whole lot of drastic changes started occurring in my life about three years ago and ever since they just seem to keep on coming. I'm sure that most of you reading this are familiar with everything Sanctus Real went through around that time; losing our bass player, close friends getting divorced, our singer's grandmother passed away while he had to be on the road. Finally then, the hardest issue for me personally; on the same day my son Ben was born my Dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Since that time period the crazy changes, both good and bad, have kept coming. Let's see; besides me having my first child and my Dad dying of cancer unexpectedly at the age of 47 (making my Mom a widow at the age of 50), Sanctus Real gets new bass player (Dan Gartley), Sanctus Real puts out third cd called The Face Of Love, Sanctus Real adds a fifth member (Pete Prevost), my sister Patti gets pregnant and has a baby boy named Seth (making me an uncle), Sanctus Real fires management, Sanctus Real hires new management, We go on the Winter Jam tour playing in front of 10-20,000 people a night, We spend all year writing and recording We Need Each Other, Susan and I find out we're pregnant again, Patti gets married to her boyfriend, my Grandma Robinson passes away, I start teaching drum lessons Tuesday nights when I'm home, we go on tour with Steven Curtis Chapman, WNEO comes out, I turn 30, Sanctus Real fires management again (currently manager-less), we go on tour with Third Day, my Grandma Graalman passes away (making me officially Grandparent-less), my other sister Sarah gets engaged (getting married August 31st), Susan and I buy a mini-van (Honda Odyssey) and in less than three weeks my beautiful wife will be giving birth to our second baby; Nathaniel Yo-Soon Graalman. Does that sound like a crazy three years to any else!?! And that's just the major stuff!
So anyways, life is just wild at times and it just seems to be getting wilder all the time any more. But when all is said and done it really just makes me even more thankful that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. He's absolutely faithful. When I look back at the last three years of my life I wonder how I haven't just gone crazy and lost my mind in the midst of all this chaos. It must just simply be that God loves me enough to give me the grace to get through all of these major life changes and to come out the other side sensing His presence, resting in His peace and feeling completely confident that He hasn't once left my side. As my Pastor, Bill Herzog, always says; "God is good all the time because that is His nature".
I think what really got me thinking about these things this week though was Saturday. You see this past Saturday was April 5th, the anniversary of my Dad's death. Three years ago April 5th was a Tuesday night and on that Tuesday night at 10:15 p.m. EST my Dad, Mark S. Graalman Sr. went to Heaven to be with Jesus forever. I guess I've just been thinking about him a lot lately and thinking about how much he's missed, although, maybe he hasn't missed anything? Maybe he can see everything that's going on down here? I'm not sure how that works, but I can think of a couple scriptures that would suggest maybe that people in Heaven are watching us and cheering us on in a sense. I don't know.
Well in memory of my Dad, here are some pic's of him: You see, he had some unique hobbies. At the age of 13 he started getting into Amateur Radio and played around with that stuff all his life. His call letters were WB8JKR. He was also into "Tesla Coils". The one pictured here was the biggest one he ever built. He called it Pandora. It shot lighting bolts over 8' long! Yea, our neighbors thought he was nuts! He definitely was a bit of a mad scientist. He was kind of an electronics genius who could pretty much build or fix anything. He played guitar when he was a kid and then picked it back up later on in life just because it was something he always wished he'd gotten good at. Lastly, here's a couple pic's of him holding Ben. He got two months with Ben, (February 4th to April 5th '05'), before he would be forced to leave us but as he himself said, "Heaven means never having to say goodbye".
I miss you Dad. I love you.
