Brad Delp EndsLife

Brad Delp died last week; this week we learned it was suicide. You may not know that Brad was the lead singer for the Rock band Boston, and now you are wondering way I am writing about it on a Pastor’s Blog.

I grew up listening to Boston, “More than a feeling” and “Long Time” were the anthems of my life. The music they played was upbeat, positive about life and spoke to me. Boston hit the music scene in the 70’s and left an incredible mark. Since that time the members have gone different ways, yet remained friends. They even had a reunion tour planned. Yet, Brad ended his life. Everyone that writes about him says things like he was the nicest man; he gave and gave, a true friend. No one writes of a dark side. But I think one writer may have hit on the problem. “He gave and gave until he had nothing left, he was tired very tired, maybe he can now rest in peace”

He gave and gave….

I am thinking about the man that sang the songs of my youth, I question, did those he gave to understand what it was costing him? Why did he not take better care of himself? Did he know how to?

How about you, are you giving all you got and not putting something back in?

When you talk of self-care our world sometimes has a selfish view. To many self care means avoiding responsibilities, apathy or dropping out. I think either extreme is wrong, that is not doing any care, and being so totally absorbed that we fail to consider our responsibility.

This is a hard one to get your hands around. The givers of all feel guilty at any thoughts of making sure that they also give to themselves. The selfish souls, not only don’t think about those who count on them, they don’t care. So the answer depends on who you are talking to. There has got to be a balance! In simple terms I believe that self-care is using wisdom to monitor our tanks, to have resources to draw from, a system of refilling, and then to actually use the system. After all our lives are about more than just us. I believe there is no such thing as daily balance. Some days you have to give it everything, you can’t take a nap while the boat is sinking. On the other hand you got to do the things to make sure that the boat doesn’t get in a place that it might sink. We have to use our time wisely to recuperate and refill.

I sound like I understand this topic more than I do. Brad died with a lot of music still to be sung. My prayer for you and I is that we sing all our songs.

“May you live all your life”

Brad Delp Article

Self care article