What Makes Your Heart Sing?

The Lilly Grant that we received challenges candidates to ask the question, "What will make your heart sing?"  As Stacy and I started thinking about things that refresh us, we found that most often whenever we were hoping for retreat, we found ourselves beside some body of water.  Growing up, my family retreated to Beaver Lake for days of swimming and water skiing and nights of games and family times.  Still when we get away, we naturally drift toward the beach, either at Lake Michigan or some place in Florida.  There's something about being near water that makes our hearts "sing."  So most of or experiences over the summer will take us "to the water's edge." 

One of our family's favorite water spots is our friend Chip Mann's lake house on Clear Lake in Fremont Indiana.  For the past several years, the Mann's have graciously offered our family a week to stay there each summer and it has become one of our favorite family memory spots.  We usually kick off the summer here, skiing, tubing, eating, and playing family games like kick-the-can, Pit, or Phase Ten (a LONG card game which our family has affectionately renamed "Slow Death.")  This time at the lake refreshes us every time and we're so glad that our friend has allowed us to start the summer off here. 

Our kids are still in school, but Stacy suggested that I go on up and set the place up for our arrival. She will come midweek and will transport our kids to school on her way to work until they get out.  I had a couple of days at the lake by myself to read, cook, and fish.  (Fish count to date--3)  I love to fish, even though we do not eat fish, but I rarely get the chance to do it.  This has been such a nice time to get away to be on the water, read, pray and think.  Quite often I would realize that I had a big grin on my face, relishing the time here.  Listened to a lot of music, so my heart really has been singing! 

The main thing I'm feeling at this point is: gratitude. So grateful that the good people of Oak Creek have allowed me the time to do this sabbatical...  Grateful for Stacy being willing to suggest that I go up early to have some time alone...  Grateful for the friendships I've made, and for the Mann's generosity to offer this place to us...  Grateful for my dad and that he taught me how to fish...  Grateful for a good guacamole recipe... on and on it goes.  God is SO good to us and we have a so many things for which we must give thanks.  I'm not entirely sure what a "singing" heart looks like, but I think that gratitude has got to be part of it. 

For your own benefit, it might be worth asking, "What is it that makes your heart sing?"  What makes you feel the joy that God intends for us to enjoy?  Someone has called these: spiritual pathways.  They are pathways that enable you to connect with God.  Maybe you do that through being in nature... Maybe by listening to music or seeing art?...  Maybe our pathway is being with people...  I'm hoping to be attentive to those things through this process and cultivate a heart of joy each day this summer. 

The Send Off

Our journey began on May 24 with a formal sending ceremony from the church.  The point of this time was to formally designate the beginning of this focused time for the church and for our family.  In our sending ceremony, I had a chance to express my love to the church and say some things that I was looking forward to over the summer. 

For the church, I was looking forward to seeing our teams function without me in the mix to see how they work on their own.  Also, I was excited about what the church would be experiencing in the Seeking Him study, a chance to pursue personal revival.  For myself, I am anxious to connect with both with my immediate family as the church is demanding personally, and with my extended family with a family reunion this summer.  I am also looking forward to gaining fresh perspective that comes from stepping away for a bit, not to mention having access to travel and some of the great art, architecture, and landmarks of the world.  Beyond that, one of the things I'm really anticipating is chance to be relieved of the pressure of weekly sermon production.  It's a joy and something that I'm called to do, but it takes over your life.  I'm excited about just reconnecting with the Lord for its own sake, and not for what it produces in the sermon.

I believe that the basis of any relationship is trust. Without it, relationships die. With it, relationships can thrive.  The send off was a chance for me to say, "Church, I trust you. I trust the leaders who will lead during this time.  I trust that you will be faithful to nurture this precious community that we have been developing all of these years.  I trust you."  It was also a chance for the church to voice that as well.  To say, "Pastor, we believe that this will be good for you and for us.  We gladly and willingly release you to do this, knowing that when you come back, we'll all be better.  We trust you."  And this is a beautiful thing to me.  Excited to see what God will do in these coming weeks!

Traveling Together

We recognize what a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity we have ahead of us.  We've been given a HUGE gift!  The opportunity for our church to be exposed to some life-changing teaching and teachers...  A chance to refocus, refresh, and renew personally... The experience of visiting people and places  that we'd never have the time or money to otherwise.  We are humbled by the opportunity and want to really make it count.  But since few people get the chance to do something like this, we thought it would be fun to take as many people along with us as we can.  Not literally.  That would be crazy!  But we'd like to keep this updated as our journey unfolds and take you along with us: to see what we see, to understand what we're thinking, and maybe to feel some of the same feelings that we will have.  We're going on a great adventure.  Want to come along?