1000 Miles for 2010 at 6:35 Am at Sunnyside and Hawethorne, December 29, 2010. Goal accomplished.

I’m closing in on running 1000 miles for the year! I sit at just over 900 miles even as a write. I have been sick the last two weeks, so lost the opportunity to be closer to 940, but that is how life goes.

Now someone might ask me why I would push to make this goal. After all, 900 miles in a year is a lot of running. That’s a good year. Why keep going? Is it really necessary?

I guess it’s not…except for one thing. It’s not just something I do. It’s become a part of who I am. I am someone who runs. It’s in me. It’s how I exercise. It’s how I decomperss. But most of all, it’s in me now.

I relate that to my faith in Christ. I believe in Jesus. I trust Him and follow Him as my Lord and Savior. I have done so for the last almost forty years. Trusting Jesus is not just something I do. It’s not religion and it’s not habit. It’s who I am. It’s as much a part of me as my feet and my lungs.

There are probably things that I have done for a long time and are a part of me that would be good to let go. This is not one of them. Following Jesus orients my life and shapes my world view. Following Jesus gives me a gloriously impossible relationship with the Eternal Divine person of God. To be without it would be death.

So I am not giving up this relationship. I would give up running first. And someday, I will probably do that.

In the last three days, three people have died. 

Yes, I know – more people than that died in the last three days.  These three people are people I knew or were close to a person I know.

My friend Todd had a friend named Gary who lost his wife after fighting brain cancer.

Cheryl’s and my friend Paul died of a heart attack at 50.  He leave his wife Laurie and three grown kids.

A railroad worker in Eugene was shot on Saturday morning.  It turns out it was Ron, a person Cheryl and I were in a small group with.  He leaves his wife Alicia, a grown son in the Navy, a high school daughter and an elementary aged school daughter.

I have no profound words.  All I have is a knot where my stomach usually is.  I was sad for Todd and Gary, shocked for Paul, now just sort of numb about Ron.  This just is a slam.  And I feel slammed.  How much more the families who are enduring the suddenness of death in their midst. 

Father, you keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast for he trusts in you.  May all these families find peace and steafastness in this time of grief.  And may those who grievce with them have the grace to be silent partners in their grieving even as we seek to understand the things that have happened among us this week.

So a friend of mine, Rick, left his job last year to pursue a run for a state office. Things they are a changing.

My wife, Cheryl, came back from Fresno about the time Rick made his announcement.  She brought two pieces of memorobilia with her. One was the Fresno Bee, which heralded the retirement of GL Johnson, 49 years the pastor of Fresno’s first mega-church. She also brought the memorial bulletin for Marvin Hein, the pastor that married us, who was a friend, and who recently passed into glory at the age of 82.

While Cheryl was gone, another pastor friend, Larry, was here helping my leadership team and I envision a new future for our church. Larry retired from local church ministry about three years ago. Now he is helping churches get to health or decide on a different route. But even he is talking about slowing down.

Back to Rick for a moment – he’s not old. He just happened to be going through a change at the same time these other men are. Add to this that his own dad passed away not long ago. Things they are a changing.

When I look at all these things together, I sense nothing but change all around me. Part of it is the changing of the guard – the older generation is handing off their vision and duties to those who will pick them up. Those who pick them up will shape them by the vision they received.

The change is also within the generations. Church and faith are taking on new tones, new nuances. There is a definite change in the feel of the gathering of believers. I see that when I meet with my elders – I have a different way of thinking about church and even that way is changing. For the elders, they have a picture of what church is and new ways of thinking are hard to get their mind around. But things are still changing.

I guess I am working at defining this change and that is really not possible. Things are changing around us and in me. Maybe it is just the normal path of things – we get older, perspectives change and we get swept up in the change for a time. Eventually, things settle down or the change goes on without us because we step aside to let someone else handle it.

I do know the world is changing as these men who have influenced me and others step aside or pass on. Now the next generation needs to pick up the baton and move forward with it. It is our leg to run…our time is now.

I don’t know…but things they are a changing.

Here I am, trying something new.  Well, not really.  I’ve tried to blog before, but this time I plan to work with it more.  The goal is a post a week.  Sometimes it will be a reflection on something I read.  Sometimes, it will be a musing I am working out for our church newsletter.  And I might just talk about life as well.  So welcome to the new blog.  I’m looking forward to some good conversation.