This is my final full week of being at Northside. It's definitely been a bit strange to realize the finality of it all. Somebody who's going to be out of town for the next week or so and will be missing my last Sunday was tellling me bye in the office yesterday. Charli and Sandy told me I wasn't allowed to do anymore goodbyes around them due to the emotion involved. There's a farewell fellowship scheduled for this Sunday evening which I'm really looking forward to; I'm glad to get the chance to see a lot of people in that type of setting, instead of random well-wishes in the hallways. And maybe by then I can come up with some type of response that doesn't involve me stammering and umm-ing when presented with such kind words.
In many ways, this feels like I'm graduating from something. There's a sadness to leave the familiar, but an understanding it's for my betterment and growth to continue on; there are many wonderful relationships that will continue strong for many years and other great ones that will, due not to lack of care of love, will not remain as strong. Northside will be, like Mars Hill Bible School and Lipscomb University, a place of nostalgia and fond remembrance for me. It's not perfect; I would be lying if I wrote of it without frustrations or disappointments. Yet in the midst of even those, I've been nurtured, protected, inspired and loved, by God and by my church family. Though physically I may walk away and move on, many pieces of my heart and soul remain with this body of believers...and I take with me pieces of them wherever my path leads.
We humans have an interesting way of reflecting on our time at a particular place. It often depends on the company we are in as to our remembrances of a particular person, event, or place. I recall a few awkward conversations and situations after arriving at Northside in which someone vented to me frustrations with the previous youth minister (with whom I worked) and shared excitement about my arrival in place of his; while the attempt may have been to encourage me, it disappointed me that the great things he'd done were overlooked in that setting or that his heart or effort seemed to be in question. I somewhat fear that, though I know I shouldn't and realize I own no control over it. I hope what is first off the tongues of these here when I'm mentioned has to do with my heart. And I hope, for myself, I will reciprocate the same; that my recollections will reflect the beautiful hearts of the ones I love.
It's a beautiful morning in south Texas. I write from a a table outside a strip-center Starbucks. How many more of these mornings I have I don't know. I may not see sky and clouds as lofty or expansive as can be seen in San Antonio; or maybe I'll see them in even greater glory...I don't know. Wherever I land, whatever I do, I know God will still reveal himself in beautiful ways as he's done faithfully along the path I walk. May blessings surround you as the humidity surrounds us down here.
