The Walk

I took the seniors away this last weekend to Sunriver, Oregon. I had an interesting revelation while I was there. Normally I am a pretty lazy person and will choose to drive over other means of transportation. Hence my Pooh Bear tummy. But Sunriver is a place that changes that outlook and I think also gives perspective on some important things in life. You see in Sunriver there are two separate networks of transportation one for cars and one for walking, running and biking. The entire city was built so that once you drove to the house you are staying at you don't have to drive anywhere else for your entire stay. It was a pretty big paradigm shift for city people to not so much focus on the destination but on the entire journey. We all have a goal we are trying to reach, but who has ever reached that goal without first learning along the way. Isn't your favorite part of a lot of movies right at the beginning when our hero is training for the big fight and he or she is going through the long painful process of learning what it takes to win. "Paint the fence, sand the floor and wax the car," are the classic examples of this. We had some great conversations while journeying together on this trip and it was a testament to what has happened over the last four years of these students lives. God cares about the journey because I think the more you learn on the walk with Him the better equipped you will be to lead others on the same road. So in your walk don't focus so much on the destination that you forget to cherish the journey.

Cliff Diving

So last night I was at the graduation ceremony for Kings High School. It was great to see so many of the students that have let me walk with them for years achieve such a great thing. As I was watching them walk across the stage and hearing their plans for the fall it was very hard not to reflect. You see my ten year reunion is coming up later this month and it has been hard for me to know how to feel about it. So much has happened since I walked across that stage, how am I supposed to share ten years of history in one night? I have come to realize that I want to attend this reunion to see the people that I have stayed in relationship with these past ten years. That if there was not a person that I had remained in contact with I probably would not attend at all. I realize that this has a lot to do with trust. And the ability to trust others with my life and what has happened in it. It is like trying to tell someone what is underneath the water they are about to jump into. Without an existing relationship of trust and community that person would be silly to jump. It goes to show how important it is to have close relationships in community that develop trust. Those are the people that I am going to see in a few weeks. But more importantly it is important that I develop this relationship with Jesus. If I love Him now and don't plan on seeing Him again until our ten year reunion I don't trust Him. As the Steven Curtis Chapman song says, "I'm diving in, I'm going deep, in over my head I want to be." Jesus will ask us to jump into the water and expect that we trust Him enough to not worry about our safety. My prayer for the graduates last night and for my life was that they and I would not relegate Jesus to an "I'll see Him at the reunion," relationship. But that we would continue to seek Him out and grow in our relationship so that when the reunion does come around He is a trusted and familiar face that we know won't lead us astray. God Bless you Seniors!