A Season in your path

 
As a pastor, I have become familiar with goodbyes. The Lord's call on my life requires, as it does all believers, obedience and a willingness to go wherever and whenever He decides.

I have had the experience, as we all have, of looking long and hard at a face that belongs to a person who has brought joy to my life and then having to walk away, never to see them again, on this earth anyway.

To be honest, saying goodbye to some people was not so hard at all...I often wish it would have been, but I have known rejection, and have not been wanted or needed by some along the way.  For the most part, however, that has not been the case. 

Farewells have taken their toll in 22 years of pastoring on me and especially my sweet wife, Laura. Our three sons have had to make new friends, and though they are now young men...they have been all to accustomed to new beginnings and teary endings. We now live 360 miles away from them...five hours by car...and sometimes a lifetime away from our memories of being together.

What are we to do?  Well I hope to stay here in beautiful Wyoming...but ultimately that decision belongs to God....and God alone.  I know this much, the people who have loved me, and those who have not, have in their own way contributed to who I am now.

Our Lord made this promise (that means so much to me) to Peter when he told our Lord all the disciples had sacrificed to follow Jesus....

 29And he said to them, "Truly, I say to you,  there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, 30who will not receive  many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life." ( Luke 18: 29-30). Esv

The following song by Wayne Watson sums up how I feel about those who have offered friendship to me along the way:

A Season in your Path
Sometimes I think about you
Some old memories make me cry
Remembering the good times makes me laugh
But all in all I'm richer
For the happy and the sad
And I’m thankful for a season in your path

I guess God alone deciphers
When people need each other most
Who will be the blessed receiver
And who will be the gracious host
And all a servant here can do
Is unto the Lord avail
Content at times to be the wind
And at times to be the sail

If another winter settles
On your shoulder down the road
Without a thought of what’s behind us
Let me help you pull your load

Sometimes I think about you
Some old memories make me cry
Remembering the good times makes me laugh
But all in all I’m richer
For the happy and the sad

And I'm thankful for a season in your path :)









Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 11, 2010 at 3:25 PM

    We have also missed our boys so we know how you feel. I love to go through old pictures and remember the boys growing up in our mountain home in New Mexico. We always had many more than just our 3 boys so our empty nest really feels empty sometimes. David, Anita and the girls have been a blessing in our lives as they have chosen to live in Green River. Do what we did - Just take a U-Haul and load up one of them and bring them to Green River. This is a nice place to live! Thanks for your blog. It's
    wonderful. Blessings, Paula

    ReplyDelete

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