the best stuff lasts

what kind of things filled up the events of your life today? what character marks you as you go about that 'filled-up' life and influence the people around you in life?

if you're normal, your life is probably full of things that aren't all that important and your character needs some attention from within the process....

i spent a couple hours last week saying 'goodbye for now' to a friend who is looking at the last days of her life here on earth. what a blessing it was for us - to share a moment with a friend in the trials of watching life on earth escape from her possession... and what amazed me was the beauty of her present clarity in life.

people who are 'dying' tend to know a lot about priorities - there's not much time, so they make the most of it.

Crystal and i cried and laughed and wept with our sister, and were overjoyed at her clarity about God's goodness and grace to us as people - poor, rebellious people who spend so much of our lives defying God and making ourselves too busy for Him.

as our friend's body and health wastes away even now, she is left with nothing but the grace of God, loving forgiveness and repentance in her relationships with her family and friends, and an anticipation of seeing her Savior.

with our friend, as her health fades, the best stuff has lasted. as all else fades, the gold and silver of her character and God's work in her life are shining brightly. i can only pray that as my life gets examined in the tests of today and the future that there will be gold and silver there to shine through, that God will have refined in me in His grace.

wish we were here...

we are in oregon at mt hood where we were pastoring youth for almost 7 years before africa. it has been great to see people and spend time with our students who are now adults - even to marry a couple of them together and send them off into life's journey as a family! thanks God for the honor....

the trouble with all of this is the beauty of it. the beauty of friendships. the beauty of the work of God in the local church. the beauty of the mountians and foothills off my morning deck. the beauty of all the "what if we had's" of life here.

the trouble with serving in different places is disengaging and allowing God to take it beyond you and not wishing you were there ... all the while serving in a new location and time. being willing to enjoy the sweet moments of remembering and not to long for more of the past.

and that doesn't even figure in the issues of snowboarding and fly-fishing - that is a completely different level of disengaging!