I Left My Heart in Saskatchewan

There are only two types of employees; Those that you want to keep on staff and those that you are trying to get rid of. For me, Karl fits into the first category. This past week, one of my friends from work has moved on to bigger and better things. Well, they are bigger things. Whether they are better or not remains to be seen.

He should have been here. Today is BX 93 day at The Mufflerman. We started having BX 93 days on Fridays because Karl likes Keith Urban. On this Friday however, he might be flying to work in northern Saskatchewan.

Karl has been one of my inspirations for writing, which adds an added dimension to the loss. He isn’t a believer, but I have done everything I know of in order to encourage him to consider Christ. I’ve been very open with him about my faith and some of my blogs were written about him.

Compared to many other nonbelievers, our conversations about faith and morality haven’t been adversarial. Well, maybe a little bit when I told him that I think tattoos are a thing of the flesh, but may of you think that tattoos are spirit led, so why would he be any different?

I have enjoyed our time together immensely and will miss him very much. This might sound weird, but one of my regrets at his departure, is that now I’ll have to make the effort to love the person who replaces him. Maybe it’s because I’m an introvert, or it might just be part of the human condition, but it takes a significant about of emotional energy to invest and love someone. So now I’ll eventually have to start the process with someone new.

I must admit that I was rather surprised with his decision. He’ll be away from home a lot and if you knew him, you would know how he treasures his wife and family. It has to be a difficult time for him.

So Karl – if you’re reading, keep in touch. It really isn’t the same here without you. When an 80’s song comes on the radio, nobody knows the title or the artist who sings it. Now when the Lion’s lose, there is nobody to make fun of. If you happen to keep reading, I’ll be honest in saying that I still hope you’ll want to be my brother in Christ someday. Most people go through life without Him, but if you ever begin to think that you need Him, I hope that I come to mind.