Settling In

It sure is quiet. After 15 years of marriage, it's so odd to be home alone every evening and wake up alone every morning. I'm hoping these 60 days pass quickly so Lynn and I can begin this life together. That said, my place is pretty nice. It's a furnished corporate apt. in a really nice apartment community. Haven't ventured up to the pool and fitness center yet but I know I need to because I promised Lynn that when she saw me next I would be 30 pounds lighter, tan, and buff.

I thoroughly despise eastern time. It seems like the evenings pass so quickly.

The job is going well. I spent almost all day Monday in orientation. Today I began the process of compiling history. What I mean by that is that I'm spending a lot of time figuring out where my department has been the past year or so in order to figure out how to get where we need to go. My predecessors did not do well at recording history for me.

That's kind of how life is. We can learn so much about how to move forward by looking backward. Reminds me of one of my favorite passages of scripture; a passage that I preached on in one of my first sermons at New Prairie. Jeremiah 6:16 says "Stand at the crossroads and ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls."

Anytime we find ourselves at a crossroads in life, not knowing what to do, if we'll look back at how God lead and provided in our past and the past of others we'll get some clues on how to move forward and find rest for our souls.

This too reminds me of the words of an old Steve Green song, "Find Us Faithful." Just as we can look back and see God in the critical moments in the lives of others, it's important that we live our lives in such a way that those who come behind us can find the same guidance.


We're pilgrims on the journey
Of the narrow road
And those who've gone before us line the way
Cheering on the faithful, encouraging the weary
Their lives a stirring testament to God's sustaining grace

Surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses
Let us run the race not only for the prize
But as those who've gone before us
Let us leave to those behind us
The heritage of faithfulness passed on through godly lives

Chorus:
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful
May the fire of our devotion light their way
May the footprints that we leave
Lead them to believe
And the lives we live inspire them to obey
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful

After all our hopes and dreams have come and gone
And our children sift though all we've left behind
May the clues that they discover and the memories they uncover
Become the light that leads them to the road we each must find.