It's good to get away if for no other reason than this helps you appreciate what you have back home. So as B and I left on the morning of June 12 for our 'Bed and Breakfast' tour of Central Texas and the Hill Country, then followed with a five day visit to Oklahoma City seeing the grands, can I 'get a witness' that it really was good to get back home to sleep in my own bed, drink my own coffee, and fight my own - not someone else's - notion of bad traffic? :-)
HONOR
Now while away I began to mentally navigate my newly awarded title of "Pastor Emeritus" - and there I discovered a few things. First, the "Emeritus" title is only an honor if both parties think it so. In this I am fortunate. ParkwayHills Baptist Church has loved - and continues to love - Belinda and me very well. We have never felt anything other from our church, and our ending days as Senior Pastor were just as our first, wonderful. For me no job, career or calling can ever hold a higher consideration than that of pastor of this sweet, caring, powerful and evangelically responsible ParkwayHills Baptist Church. So that being given this title by them really is my honor.
CHANGE
But, second, life has a compelling way of moving only one way, and that is forward. Yesterday is gone and cannot be brought back. Today is here to either be used or wasted. And tomorrow is not yet so that excess worrying is futile, planning useful and dreaming helpful - especially when it translates you toward action today.
So while I was driving about Texas and sitting on benches outside antique stores waiting for B, and in OKC watching our grandsons at play, I thought, "what next?" and here are a few 'musts' I came to.
I must...
1. Be faithful to my calling - to preach Christ and Him crucified.
2. Be diligent in my responsibility - to care for family, friends and others over whom I love and whose charge I've been given.
3. Be ready for my future - looking optimistically forward to see new opportunities.
So where does this day find you? Perhaps you are like me, navigating change because your health, family or job has been altered. And, if like me you are prone to ponder, ponder this... home is good, honor nice, but change is inevitable. The only thing you can control is how you navigate it - and faithfulness, diligence and a ready attitude are excellent points from which to begin.
Finally, here is a promise from God to Israel - and to us, as well, as we commit to becoming faithful followers of Christ.
"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." Isaiah 43:9
For, indeed, He has and does.
