Packing...

It is interesting to me what I have learned in the last year with regard to packing.  With our trip last summer to Romania, Kaitlyn and I had to learn anew how to pack our suitcases for an overseas trip.  We learned that there were things that we could not just take for granted - like the use of our electrical devices - phone charges, camera battery chargers, and the like.  We needed to have the right equipment.  Voltage transformers and adapters became a quick purchase that we were not anticipating, until time to go.  Remembering to pack a second, expandable bag (just in case) for souvenirs and for dirty clothes to return home.  Packing a backpack, with books for the long flights, bathroom essentials in case we were held over some place for weather or other reasons, and of course money. 

I've begun to make a new list for the trip to Israel.  I've even called my bank and my cell phone carrier to let them know that I will be traveling overseas.   I have all the above items, and then some, and I know that no matter how much I plan, I will definitely forget something!  Folks who know I am going have already asked me for their list of souvenirs for me to bring back.  (I'm trying to remember to bring the list, too!)  It is hard to imagine that in a little over a week, I will once again be traveling to another world - a world that is at once present and ancient. 

Preparing for the journey is not just something that we do with regard to lists, but is something that we do with our hearts as well.  Last evening at Bible Study, someone asked me what I was looking forward to the most when I get there.  I responded that I am a visual person - I like to see it, and then it tends to make more sense for me.  I said I was looking forward to seeing all those places that I have been reading about for all these years!  Being able to see it in person, I can then check that against my imaginations from having read about these places for so many years. 

But I think there is something even deeper than this happening when one prepares for a journey.  It is not just preparing to see it, but to be prepared to experience the feelings that will accompany the footsteps.  Knowing that I will have walked where Biblical characters from both Old and New Testaments sends chills up my spine!  Not long ago, I had the opportunity to travel to the Old Spanish Mission Churches in San Antonio.  The experience of walking where faith pilgrims have been traveling for over 350 years was a blessing that almost defies explanation.  I am trying to wrap my mind around walking where faith pilgrims have walked for almost 4,000 years!

Come to think of it, the same can be said about our everyday faith journey.  While the geography may not be the same, the faith journey bears a striking resemblance to that of our forebears.  Dealing with the common and the not-so-common issues of life, viewed through the lens of faith, brings us closer to one another in ways that can almost defy words.  And yet, there is a connection there.  Linking the footsteps of faith with the generations who have come before us helps us to see that we are not so different.  Further reflection invites us to envision the footsteps that will follow ours - and one begins to ask, will those who follow us find our steps in line with Christ's? 

Meanwhile, back to packing...can't forget my sunglasses, nor my camera...

See you in Church!

Grace and peace,
Brad

How are you doing?

Seems like a simple question to ask – one that we seem to ask an awful lot.  “How are you doing?”  “How’ve you been?”  “How are things?”  Sometimes we get an answer back that is almost as short as, if not shorter than, the question. “Fine.”  “I’m okay, thanks.”  “Not so good.” 

When we ask such a question, what is our intention?  Are we asking from an honest desire to hear how the other is doing/feeling?  Or are we inviting the other into a conversation, and this was an ice-breaker question?  Or are we merely making idle chit-chat? 

It seems as though 2011 has gotten off to a roaring start, and I thought I had actually caught myself leaving as I was walking in!  District and Conference meetings in Kerrville and San Antonio, church meetings here at the Lake, and the host of other year-end and year-beginning routines have had me on what seems like a dead run, and I’ve had to catch myself from tripping over my calendar several times!

Someone asked me the other day how I was doing, and I honestly had to stop and ponder the question.  It really didn’t matter to me whether the person asking was truly interested or not; it was merely an opportunity to stop and take a pulse of my own personal status.  What was I feeling?  How was I doing?   This year has started off in a blaze of activities for me, and such questions are re-centering for me.  They allow me the opportunity to once again find my equilibrium, my center of balance.  They are good questions for all of us, given many of our hectic lives and the demands on our time, our attention, our sanity. 

One of the things that I did this year as a New Year’s Resolution was to take that question seriously.  When I ask it, I make myself slow down enough to actually try to hear the response that I get – and then to honestly evaluate if the answer is a quick dismissal of the question, or if there is truth in it.  (Sometimes folks will answer quickly to get the attention off of themselves, in order to avoid exposing something painful or uncomfortable in their lives at that moment.)  I also pledged to answer the question as honestly as I could when it was asked of me. 

Perhaps we might all take a moment or two each day and ask, how am I doing today?  And then take the time to do a quick but honest inventory.  What I have found is that when I do take that extra moment or two, I remember why I do what I do – and who I serve.  And I need that.  Don’t you?

So, how are you doing?

See you in Church!

Grace and peace,

Brad