I have been working on an article that is, I believe, important. It is also difficult, addressing some of the challenges we all face when it comes to appropriate communication. But I can’t quite find the right tone, so I’m shelving the post until I am more comfortable with how I present the topic and represent those involved. Stay tuned.

So, instead, the “10-Year Challenge”!

Don’t let it escape your notice, dear friends, that with the Lord a single day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a single day.

2 Peter 3:8

The “10-Year Challenge” is something that has been going around Facebook and Instagram for a few days. I was going to pass it up until our daughter, Naomi, posted this wonderful combination of images spanning 2012 to 2022. Just look at her beautiful family, and how she and Craig are bringing such joy to so many people through David, Beks, and now Geoffrey!

Then I realized that this month marks ten years since the amazing Holy Lands educational trip Rebekah and I took with a group from Asbury Seminary.

So just about every day some “memory” photo is popping up on Facebook that makes me want to hop on a plane and do it all again.

Retelling the story:

Later this week, I plan to re-share just one of my 15 travelogue posts from January 2012 (it will be “Bible Lands in 12 photos – the short version of a long story”). But for today I’m going to use a few images from our Epic Adventure for “Derek & Rebekah do the 10-year challenge.”

Here Rebekah and I are exploring Petra in Jordan (remember the awesome setting from the Indian Jones movie The Last Crusade?). Paired with our Christmas photo from last month.

From Cairo to the Outer Banks:

This next pairing is from Cairo, and the banks of the River Nile. Then North Carolina’s Outer Banks a couple of months ago.

Jerusalem, Galilee, and Wake Forest:

Now I will share a couple of us as individuals:

Here is Rebekah, first at the Pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem, January 2012, then here in Wake Forest on Christmas Day.

Finally, me. First perched on “The Precipice” outside of Nazareth, in Israel January 2012. Then, also Christmas Day, here in Maul Hall.

Beauty and Time:

Personally – and I admit I may be somewhat biased here – I believe it is obvious that Rebekah is growing more beautiful as the days, the years, and the decades progress.

In many respects I believe this is not just my perspective but a theologically accurate truth. As we age we grow in many ways – years, wisdom, experience, relationships… – the intrinsic beauty of our soul, the deepest and most authentic element of who we are, has the opportunity to become the rare treasure God is working on, crafting, and will for all eternity.

Yes, we will do this in another ten years. And I know the beauty will continue to flower.

In love, and because love is real – DEREK