I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. – Romans 15:13

Wednesday lunchtime, driving over to Orlando, I stopped by to have lunch with a longtime friend in DeLand (note that I said “longtime” rather than “old” friend!).

Linda and I have been friends since April of 1975, when we served together on a mission team that convened in the south of England before traveling through close to twenty nations over the next three months. She – along with John Hess in Montana – also had a big part in the many and varied adventures that made discovering America such a transformational experience for me in 1975-76.

It was Linda who introduced me to Stetson University, and the good folk in administration who were willing to take a risk on a 19-year-old with questionable academic credentials but a willingness to learn and also (of great value to the university) a willingness to play soccer.

So we talked, and we shook our heads wryly as we recalled some of the misadventures we got into in places like Rome, the ancient city of Corinth, Athens, the Zealot fortress of Masada in Israel, the dusty backroads of Turkey, Transylvania and the risky border crossing into the USSR – not to mention Linda’s narrow escape from the Crusader Castle on the Island of Rhodes.

We got caught up on our spouses (Rebekah and Mike), on our families, the deep love we have for our children and our grandchildren, and talked about our concern – and deep love – for this fractured world.

On to Orlando

Then I made a point of getting off the highway and driving through some of the rural oak-hammock country that makes Central Florida so distinctive, eventually making my way around Orlando and to Winter Garden.

I am here to help our daughter Naomi pack up some of her stuff and get a few more of her ducks in a row for the apartment she will be moving into next week.

It is not easy, sifting through boxes and books, and linens and china, and – as Jim Croce sang it – Photographs and Memories, the bits and pieces of broken hearts and broken dreams.

But her new job is off to a good start, and I am not too bad at stuffing things into boxes, and this evening we will take the children out to dinner, and time will – as it does – move forward, and the details will eventually all fall into place.

Life can be a challenge to get right. But of course the real living is in the journey. This is why God has gifted us not just with hope and grace but with creativity, and determination, and grit, and adaptability.

And what we are called to do with these gifts is to use them – no matter who we are or where we are – in the context of the words Rebekah spoke over the new elders installed at church this past Sunday. Here they are, words anyone who has felt the weight and the blessing of a calling in their lives will recognize: “Will you serve… with energy, intelligence, imagination and love?”

We all have this calling, installed as official leaders or not. So the question remains, will we respond to God’s invitation? Will we engage with this world – our family, our work, our church, our neighbors, our community – with Energy, Intelligence, Imagination and Love?”

• DEREK: “Will we?”
• READERS: “We will… with the help of God.”

AMEN!!