My wife and I had a failure to communicate yesterday…and again this morning. And instead of talking through it (which duh, we’re failing to communicate after all), we fought instead. And left to start our respective days in anger and frustration. We made up via text as the day went along and agreed to try avoiding such nonsense in the future. It was as much closure as you can get via text.

When I got home from work tonight (following a going away party for my boss, make that former boss), my wife had already left for her weekly small group meeting. I parked the kids in their room and wandered into our bedroom to change. There was a book resting on my side of our bed called “On the Threshold of Transformation.” It’s a collection of teachings and writings from Friar Richard Rohr. Interesting. I scooped it up and began reading. It’s funny. Sometimes, even when we’re not communicating, she still knows what to say, or do.

Early on, the book states that for centuries, “males have been encouraged and rewarded for living an outer life of performances, which are usually framed in terms of win or lose…in such as world view there are only winners and losers, no in-between, and little chance for growth or redemption.” Yep, that about sums me up.

The book breaks Rohr’s teachings into 366 daily devotions intended to help you think differently and meditate on your manhood. I plowed through an entire week’s worth of entries before pausing to let them soak in. More to come on that.

This was just what I needed this week. A jolt to shake me from the numbing cycle of stress at work, stress at home, stress at work. It’s so easy to turn everything into the next great tragedy, no matter how small or petty it is. So easy to lose perspective and momentum. I called out earlier today for help…and God responded by delivering me some poignant reading through my lovely wife. Even when we have failure communicating, God doesn’t.