I am a strange Shadowlander in that I have spent most of my 70 years trying to help others make it to the True Country. I have been a pastor, professor, campus pastor and about a dozen other things related to the academy, the marketplace, and the church. I once was an internationally ranked power lifter, weight lifter and referee. Now I am a broken down old man but I still love working with Special Olympics Powerlifting and Paralympics. But mostly I love life on a great university like UGA and seeing the light go on in the eyes of students when they begin to “get it”.
Of late I find that I get the same joy when people get that God’s first mandate to humankind was to protect and care for the earth. Son Safaris is involved in creation care in South Africa and I have been blessed to be involved with them since their inception almost 10 years ago.
I have been married to an amazing woman for 50 years and Sheila and I have two wonderful daughters: Melissa and Jennifer and one adopted foster son, John. Missy is married to David Berry and has 3 sons: Jonathan, Andrew, and Michael. JJ is married to Eric Rubio and has 4 sons: Hudson, Cooper, Maddox, and Miller. Both daughters met their husbands at CCF and both families are better Christians than I am. We call our grandsons “The Magnificent Seven” because they are. John is married to his career as a Captain at American Airlines. We are blessed that all of our children and grandsons love us. Our grandsons call us Papa and Mimi.
The Shadowlander 
Hi Uncle Tim! What’s a SHADOWLANDER?
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Hi Heather!
The term Shadowlander is borrowed from C.S. Lewis. It is his term for one who lives in the Shadowland while moving to the world that is the real world that casts the shadow. The apostle Paul called Jesus followers “strangers in a strange land”. That is a shadowlander. I chose the title for my blog because I love life, parties, Mardi Gras, friends, nature, travel, family – I love this shadowland while at the same time striving for the reality of which this wonderfully broken world is but a shadow. I long for heaven, eternity with God and all the redeemed but that doesn’t mean I hate the shadowland. Lots of people have a hard time figuring me out because I love life but I don’t quite fit, I am a stranger in a strange land. I am the Shadowlander.
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Interesting point of view.Thanks for the post. – Once you’ve put one of his books down, you simply can’t pick it up again. (talking about Henry James) – Mark Twain 1835 – 1910
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No, it’s not your wife, it’s another Sheila Hudson (I live in Idaho). I was reading your encouraging blog today after seeing a post from you on facebook. I had to smile when I realized your wife is Sheila Hudson because I finally realized why I have you on my friends list on facebook. It must be because I had communicated with your Sheila in the past.Anyway, I was glad to read your blog and I realized that I am in that position of having left my relationship with Christ. Just like you I can tell others and even appear to walk the walk (in a limited way) but my heart hasn’t been there for years. (after lots of disallusionment and anger etc.) I need to invite my savior back in, geesh, I feel like I need to “get saved” all over again. Seems so odd and in a way old fashioned because I remember lots of times being in church services when people were invited to “rededicate” their lives to the Lord. Well, I’m in that place now and I thank you for taking the time to express that the need is real in such plain terms. I don’t know what this is going to look like as I take the next steps but I know for sure that it can only get better as far as spiritual health is concerned.
+1
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Tim: You and I were students at ACC from 1966-1970. I have been in and out of pulpit ministry and the classroom for the past 39 years. I have been receiving the bulliten of the Galilean Christian Church since I was the minister for the Central Oconee Church of Christ in Oconee County. I saw your bolg address in the bulletin and though I would send you a note. I remember you as a serious student at ACC and your blog confirms this. I would love to attend the NE Georgia Ministers and Church Leaders meetings but I’ve had spinal fusion surgery that has not gone well and am somewhat limited in my mobility. Some interesting things are going on between the Christian Church and the Churches of Christ. The Church of Christ has made some significant advances in thinking in the past 10 to 20 years. I have made some contribution to that through my writings and my time in the classroom. Check out my website, http://www.godstory.net; it contains a lot of my lecture material from my teaching career at Southeastern Biblical Institute and the Greater Atlanta Christian School’s Center for Biblical Studies in Atlanta. Would like to hear from you. Maurice
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Hi Tim,
No, it’s not your wife, it’s another Sheila Hudson (I live in Idaho). I was reading your encouraging blog today after seeing a post from you on facebook. I had to smile when I realized your wife is Sheila Hudson because I finally realized why I have you on my friends list on facebook. It must be because I had communicated with your Sheila in the past.
Anyway, I was glad to read your blog and I realized that I am in that position of having left my relationship with Christ. Just like you I can tell others and even appear to walk the walk (in a limited way) but my heart hasn’t been there for years. (after lots of disallusionment and anger etc.) I need to invite my savior back in, geesh, I feel like I need to “get saved” all over again. Seems so odd and in a way old fashioned because I remember lots of times being in church services when people were invited to “rededicate” their lives to the Lord. Well, I’m in that place now and I thank you for taking the time to express that the need is real in such plain terms. I don’t know what this is going to look like as I take the next steps but I know for sure that it can only get better as far as spiritual health is concerned.
Thanks again,
Sheila Rae Hudson
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Small world Sheila! Thanks for your honesty. I will pray for the grace of our savior to reignite in you as it has so often in my life!
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