First Days

Ok, let's skip out on the reflection and approach this from a pragmatic standpoint for a second. Some reflections on my first day here at Grace Community Church.

1) Your own office...man, I need to get one of these. What an awesome blessing to have a desk, a box of books and texts and a quiet arena to reflect, translate, and even blog all the while listening to the musical treasure that is City and Colour.

2) A happy work space is a productive one and everyone here carries themselves with smiles and laughter. Work still gets done, but is there any greater task than the work of one's Heavenly Father by means of rejoicing in his creation? I doubt it.

3) Normally I am not a names guy, but for some reason these names are sticking like peanut butter under the tongue of a chocolate lab. Sometimes they say that you need a memorable face to stick a name, and I guess I've met a lot of memorable people because I've got a good storehouse of names, faces, and places so far. Pretty good for a simple Michigander!

4) What an awesome blessing to be here. For the last semester I've been lucky enough to spend my Tuesday evening with 10 fellow believers (and passionate ones at that) and four amazing teachers, both by word and by example (they would ALL make Francis of Asissi very proud!) And to come here and be active, such a blessing. Sure my first day was not exactly the most impactful (at one point involving lifting a big screen TV into a truck) but who ever said that the Christian life was always entertaining and novel? Sometimes it is in the average, the mundane, and the trivial that God works the strongest, for it is in the routes of our everyday routines that we suddenly come to the towering relization that every inch of our life, even the silly, senseless, and stupid, are in conformity to His sacrifice upon the cross, and it is then that we rediscover our purpose in His origin and welcoming arms. Either way, I feel these 70 days will speed by, minus those loved ones homeward bound.

Finally, I was going though John 4 today, translating part of Jesus' interaction with the Samaritan woman, which is one of my favorite incidents of Christ with humanity. Here he is, stretching his arm for his apostle to look around them at the fields, literally discribed in the Greek New Testament as 'luekai' or 'white'. Wavy fields of grain ready to be reaped. It is then that he speaks "Behold, I tell you, open up your eyes and behold the fields, that they are white for harvest" (John 4:35 self-translated). The harvest is obviously ready, but as the disciples look around themselves they fail to notice the crowd coming from the neighboring city of Suchar as a crowd of people follow, having been told by the Samaritan woman of Christ as he spoke to her at the well. Indeed, the harvest is white, ripe, and ready to be harvested, but who is willing to do such?

That's what I hope; not only to harvest, but even to plant or nourish, whatever is needed of me under His perfect will. But, this is day one and many days of work await.

To my fellow Jubilee Fellows, my prayers are with you guys, love to you all and heartfeltly I miss our koinonia and laughter, but thoughts with you all.

As for me, I'm off to the beach hopefully for a warm and sweaty run...Go Wings