in the calm before the storm... to reflect on 3 months north of Lancaster. in many ways (like referring to Lancaster, WSM, or CMC as home) it seems as if we are still there. We maintain connections with family, friends, church, and conference. We still visit, and worship, and serve (although Skype makes it easier to daydream during Leadership Team meetings) with our friends in Lancaster and as we get set to celebrate Thanksgiving this week, we are forever grateful for the family, friends, brothers and sisters we have drawn near to and embraced over the last 12+ years of our married life and my 17+ years in a place where I came to know grace and mercy....
Thanksgiving this year will be different in that we will celebrate it, around the table with most of our kids (not all) and I won't be sitting down rooting for the Lions and whoever is playing Dallas (annoying the heck out of my brother in law, nephews, and all other haters of the Iggles - another holiday tradition), but we will be establishing new traditions, in a new house, in a new town, without the comforting embrace of friends and family that I used to wear like a worn sweater, threadbare around the sleeves, but too comfortable and warm to give up....
For that I also am truly thankful, for as in the breaking in of a new sweater (or pair of jeans, or sneakers) there is that period where you just do not see how this will fit, how you will ever be comfortable in it, or how it will ever be able to replace what was - that in the perseverance we learn gratitude...
Gratitude for what was and for what is and what will be...
And so I wear the new well, embracing the change of color and texture, grateful for the baggage that has been cast aside that lets me slip into a smaller size, and hopeful that the lessons of the past will transform the future...
they have already changed the present....
