Day One of Seven
August 21, 2006
Guest Blogger: Charles Gibson

Actually I go by Chad. But my legal name is Charles and I've been published as Charles, so we'll go with that.

As a kid, I didn't like the name Charles, because then I would get called Chuck or Charlie, which I liked even less. On the first day of class every year, the teacher, seeing that my name was on the class list as Charles, would inevitably ask for "Chuck" when taking attendance for the first time, and every year I would look around in curiosity with the rest of the other students wondering who Chuck was and waiting for him to say "here." Then after a few moments of silence in the class, I would realize "oh, the teacher means me." Then I would raise my hand and say "here, but I go by Chad."

And I'm still saying that today. Except now I like the name Charles, but don't call me Chuck or Charlie. Nothing against those names, they just don't fit me somehow. I guess in my mind, Chuck is someone from the fifties with a buzz hair cut. Although I do know several nice guys named Chuck, some even with longer hair.

Enough of my ramblings about my name. I'm appreciative of Allison for giving me the opportunity to post on her blog this week. For that matter, I'm thankful for all the opportunities she's given me in the last four years. I've had two stories published in the God Allows U-Turns series, and have participated with Allison in several book signings. My first story was published in the American Moments volume and is about how I was impacted by the space shuttle Challenger explosion. The next story, released this year in the Teens volume, is about the experience of a 17-year-old on a missions trip to France. I'll get to the stories later in the week, probably tomorrow, but I wanted to tell you a little bit more about me first. You can see some of my other writings at www.chadgibson.blogspot.com.

I've been married to my wife, Tricia, for 12 years and we have a little boy named Trenton, who’s almost 3. We live in Centerville, MN, about 15 miles north of St. Paul. My wife and I have actually known each other for 17 years since we dated for 5 years before getting married, which is quite an accomplishment considering that the first three years we were both at a private Christian college, where the pressure to date for 1 year, then get engaged is very intense. It’s very interesting. We simply outlasted all the questions of “are you engaged yet?” We weren't going to get married until we were ready. My wife, however, who married someone still very much under construction, wished at times we had waited another 5 years to get married.

We also waited to have kids. We believed that God had his own timeline for us. Often people have their own ideas of how things should be. I know there were those who thought we waited to have kids simply so we could both establish our careers and make more money, but the main reason was so that God could finish some of his "construction work" in me. It had taken me several years and a lot of hard work to deal with the effects of a passive dad and a mom prone to fits of rage.

I knew my wife would make a great mom, but I also knew I was still too passive and didn't want to have our child deal with a passive dad. It cannot be said too loudly that passivity is a curse. In her classic book, War on the Saints, Jessie Penn-Lewis wrote that "the chief condition, therefore, for the working of evil spirits in a human being, apart from sin, is passivity." My family background, in fact, was very cursed. With generations of deep-seated sin and occultism, there was involvement in everything from spiritualism to witchcraft to freemasonry. I went through a lot to break the curses of my ancestors and was determined that my children would not receive such a demonic inheritance as I did. My son will hear someday about the bondages of his ancestors and what his dad went through to overcome it and it will feel very removed to him. I thank God for that. More about my story tomorrow.