Resilience

I like the word.

I became more familiar with the word when listening to a dialogue between Gordon MacDonald and Bill Hybels. Gordon identified - In the great race of life, there are some Christ-followers who stand out from all the rest. I call them the resilent ones. The further they run, the stronger they get. They seem to possess these spiritual qualities:

• They are committed to finishing strong
• They run inspired by a big-picture view of life
• They run free of the weight of the past
• They run confidently, trained to go the distance
• They run in the company of the "happy few"

I listened to this dialogue several months back, soon after the Sabbatical had been approved but uniquely as I struggled with whether it was really a good idea or the right timing or . . . Listening to this sealed the deal for me that it was right and it was now. Since then, I picked up Gordon's book entitled, A Resilent Life, specifically to bring with me on this journey. I read much of it over the weekend - it's making a deep impact.

One of the tasks he suggests is taking a sabbatical (even if you can't get away like me, he suggests slowing down your life to evaluate) and doing a self-study. He offers the idea of evaluating your life in 5-year increments (0-5, 6-10, etc.) around 3 Important Factors:

• Key People who have influenced me - for good or ill
• Critical Events that have changed me - happy or sad, and
• Major Ideas that guided me - noble or ignoble
  

I started that experience last Saturday . . . I was amazed at the people, events and ideas I remembered - and the impact they have made on me . . . some negatively and many more positively.

I came away with a profound sense of the Hope that comes from God's Grace - the reality of the grace I have experienced and the need for more grace for the journey of the past in preparing for the journey of the future.

Thanks for your prayers regarding this as I spend time alone in this part of the Sabbatical journey.

GWEN IS COMING!

Today, Saturday, June 9, Gwen joins me for 10 more days of the first block.



We will be heading from Salt Lake City toward Glacier National Park in Montana.



I can't WAIT!

Prayer Requests

From time to time I will be dropping in prayer requests. So many of you have let me know that you are praying every day! That means more than you could ever know.

Here are a few requests for the next week or so

• The discovery of God's leading and a rhythm for this journey - for each day and for the whole
• A deep sense of joy in God's presence
• Personal renewal - beyond what I can comprehend
• Deep marital oneness and sharing - (Gwen joins me this Saturday!)
• On yeah, and all of the travel and safety issues

Thanks so much!

Pictures . . .

I've visited several places so far . . . here are a few pictures

Window Rock - home of the Navajo Nation Headquarters

Canyon De Chelley

Church Rock - which I climbed to the crest of - in a pathway I made up as I went along which would have freaked Gwen!

A natural arch in El Malpais National Monument park - I got better, closer pictures later because I found a trailed marked, LOSED, that took me right up into the arch area . . . (the sign may have been missing a letter . . .)

700 year old ruins of the forerunners of the Zuni and Pueblo Indians. These areas were used for 100+ years of the 700 that these Native Americans lived in this particular area.

Top of El Morro National Monument - one of my favorites and a place I spent a long morning on top of - again it seemed to be off the trail but sure was a great place to read, sun, and journal.

Moments With Ted & Evie . . .

So I'm staying in New Mexico in a cottage like home called a "Hogan" which is a native Navajo home. The couple that are providing it to me (thanks to "Donquest") are a couple named Ted & Evie. Ted is a Navajo who taught school for a number of years and now in his post-school days is pastoring a CRC church. Evie is a nurse from Wheaton who graduated from Nursing School in Grand Rapids and they met here in her (& his) first year serving at Rehoboth, a CRC mission.

Ted & Evie took me to a beautiful spot last week called Canyon De Chelley. It is an incredibly intimate canyon experience (unlike the Grand Canyon) in NE Arizona.

We took our time seeing everything - unlike most of the others visiting who merely hurried to each spot, took pictures and raced on to the next overview. Ted laughed as he watched them and shared a favorite dialogue people have after the experience - "What did we see there?" "I don't know, we'll have to wait and look at the pictures when we get home."

Basically, the joke is that we rush the sights, snap some pictures but never really experience the sight or any moments.

At one point, Ted & Evie were just leaning on a wall with their eyes closed. I had been looking around when Ted invited me to join them. He said, I (we) like to pause and experience the wind. He continued - It reminds me of John 3 - "we don't know where the wind comes from or where it is going, but we feel it." Or Elijah when he asked for God to show Himself - "He wasn't in the earthquake or the fire but in the gentle breeze . . ."

They invited me to join them. Frankly, I hadn't even noticed the breeze. We all paused, and in the quietness and the gentleness, we experienced His presence. Several persons came and went observing the sights, but we experienced the Creator of the sights and the One who chooses to draw near - if we pause.

The insights are easy to draw . . . leaving that up to you and HIM.