Lent Devotional – Flexibility

In my professional life, as in so many aspects of my life, I have truly been blessed beyond measure. God has led me to opportunities to work and toil in some extraordinary locations in our world. He has allowed me to build and create some very cool things, structures, concepts and subdivisions, that will be here long after I am gone… Condominiums on top of ski mountains, a neighborhood near White Rock Lake, a hotel in Cancun, beautiful homes in Dallas, Telluride, Cedar Creek Lake, and Santa Fe, shopping centers in Florida, Tucson, Denver and North Dallas. I have had the privilege to manage companies and departments from 2 employees to 50, always enjoying the camaraderie, the chance to lead, influence and impact others lives as we worked together. Many times success wasn’t measured in dollars and cents, probably most of the time it was measured in people and friendship. And I have worked on some amazing things that didn’t work – a castle near Aspen, a machine that would turn toxic water into drinking water, a tequila company, two ski company acquisitions, and several “save the world” endeavors. All along the way, prayers were answered and unanswered, and some prayers helped dodge bullets and cannonballs.

But to me, the greatest blessing of my career will sound oddly simple. Flexibility. I was blessed to be able to make my schedule be what I wanted and needed it to be… and in so many careers, that just isn’t possible. Your schedule makes you. You career controls your life, and so many of your choices are made for you, and you either accept that or you fail. But that didn’t happen with me. Even with the ups and downs of good markets and bad, good partners and bad, great opportunities and great risks, I was able to make time for the most important people in my life. My children. My family. Those I love. My two daughters both will be graduated from college by May with arts-based degrees, and throughout their lives I have been blessed to be able to attend nearly every performance or major life event that they have ever had — countless theater, choir, color-guard, shows and recitals. And I have been able to spend extraordinary times with them, one on one, and together – fishing, skiing, trips to Washington DC, Seaside, Mexico, Boston, so many places in Colorado and New Mexico, and countless other destinations. I had the flexibility in my career to make the decision that so many dads are unable to do, to spend meaningful time with their children, during the years that it matters. I have been blessed more that they will ever know by this time together.

I lost my mom 4 years ago today — at 11:11am, the day after her 80^th birthday, following complications with several bouts of cancer and a broken hip. In the months leading up to her loss, I was able to spend an extraordinary amount of time with her, holding her hand, laughing, talking and crying about our lives together – the great and the sublime. Talks about faith and love and hope – until it was time to go. All of this even though she lived 8 hours away… and all because I had the flexibility in my career and life to be able to be there with my mom when it mattered the most, to us both. Even with the blessing of this flexibility, you have to make the decision to make the time, to be intentional about what you do with that time, who to share it with, and how to share it. I am a flawed man, who has lived a very blessed life. But when God blessed me with the opportunity to choose – I believe that He, my girls and my mom would say that I made better choices than not, which has brought me greater blessings than I will ever deserve. Sometimes blessings are simple. And sometimes your choices should be simple – even when they aren’t. I continue to try to make choices to make my life more simple, less complicated – about love, and faith, and happiness. My prayer is that I continue to be blessed with the wisdom from Him to make the best choices that a flawed man can make – in love and life.

Blessings to you all – Randy Edwards