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walking on the beach
every few seconds
the wave smooths the sand
the little girl
following her dad
must stay near
to see the footprints
so they don’t fade into the wash of the wave
following God means being intentional
about keeping our eye on the footprints
of God

sitting on the porch, watching the waves, they are constant, they are ceaseless, my bed faces the ocean, I hear the waves, they can be counted on, like God.

A couple of weeks ago in Oxford, I heard a talk about Lesslie Newbigin (by Michael Green no less) and his answers about pluralism. I picked up a couple of books by him at Blackwells and brought this one for reading during this week of resting…

It is a great primer on how we got from pre-modern thinking to modernity to post-modern thinking. I may write more about this book in days to come, but this thought stuck in my mind this morning:
“The churches of Europe and their cultural offshoots in the Americas had largely come to a kind of comfortable cohabitation with the Enlightenment.” Think about that… and then ask… should our thinking really be tied to the Enlightenment?

read on…

the view from the front porch

flew home safe and am heading for the beach!!!!

well, its the last day of this trip, it’s been a tough week in which activities were scaled way back, haven’t felt much like blogging or even reading… a lot of chillin…

six weeks ago today the team was packing and getting in a van and driving to the airport… the rest of the team went home three weeks ago…

I have slept in 13 different spots, three nights of which were on airplanes (thanks be to God for BA.COM and online check in that gives me some control of the seat) several on floors (with mattress), some nights roasting because of heat (Croatia) some nights freezing (South Africa), worshipped in 10 different churchs (which spaned the denominational spectrum), 12 new stamps in the passport, one new country, lived for a week in an Oxford College, saw the meeting of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, read The Shack then gave it away, enjoyed the fellowship and long conversations with friends old and new engaging in honest and usually hard questions about God and life, about Him who came for us because He loved us… we were reminded by one another of His Grace…

for me, the quotes of the trip were…

“Don’t be childish, but don’t lose your childlikeness” – me to a kid

“Look for Him to do some rearranging in you.” – a pastor to me

“Tom, have you ever walked this slow?” Laura N. commenting on my pace after my birthday dinner, thanks guys

“Man, you don’t look so good.” Mark, as he took me to the doctor on Monday.

“Excuse me, can you tell me where Starbucks is?” me to a random man while Josh filmed, this nice fellow showed us to a coffee shop

“Be content with what I have given you.” Papa to me, after a dark night of the soul.

Thanks Doug, Lea, Karen, Joanna, Arden, Gabor, Laci, Keri, Charles, Josh, Abby, Mark, Laura and Dan, Mate, Marton, Janice, Doug, Frank, Lance, Rick, Carol, Ron and most of all Anna – whom I will see tonight!

Peace from Grace