Ok,I'll admit it, I've gone blog hog wild. When I start up with this, then I see bloggable material everywhere.
Take today for instance After a busy morning and afternoon, I returned home to find Caleb (on the left) and Mason (on the right) standing in the kitchen (I was bringing groceries home, they are 18 and 19 so you get the picture). Mason and Caleb have known each other, I think, less than 48 hours. Mason is a traveller. Not a fellow traveller, just a traveller. He is from Omaha and is travelling (generally that means hitchhiking, and living off the kindness of strangers) to Florida. I don't know why. He has a very delightful but quiet ambiance about him. And he is United Methodist.
Mason and I talked after I told Caleb I had preached this morning--Mason overheard, and said "You preach?" "Yep" I said. "Not a lot, but sometimes. I'm an administrator in the church and I have 61 United Methodist churches under my administrative and spiritual care." Mason: "I'm United Methodist. I went to that church at 41st and Bell this morning" Me: You mean Epworth Roanoke?" Mason: "Yeah, Caleb told me to ask people if they knew you." (I found out later that Mason and Caleb had spent the night with a friend--Mason was up all night, Caleb slept). Caleb: "My Mom's famous!!" a favorite line of his when he introduces me to yet another frind. Me to Mason: " What's your church in Omaha?" Mason: "St. Andrews--our pastors are Bruce and Nancy Davis and they were from Missouri---Springfield..." And then I told him I knew them. He told me about an Infoshop that that church runs there....I am not quite sure what an Infoshop is, but there is one near us here. And then I took his picture. I made the guys say "John Wesley!" when I took it, and then Caleb started to explain who John Wesley was. Mason: "Dude, I know who John Wesley was!" as they walked away.
A United Methodist traveller? This reminded me of circuit riders, and brush arbor attendees walking for miles to get to a service, and such. This guy Mason must be a real believer if he would search out a nearby church and show up after he had stayed up (read: partied) all night.
What's not to love?
Traveling we UMers are. Travelling toward perfection; travelling to deeper holiness; travelling to a deeper, deeper relationship with God. Travelling always from here to there--called sometimes to Bethlehem, sometimes to Nazareth, sometimes down misty roads. Having heard the call of God, that voice can sometimes grows silence for a while and we come to a unexpected bends in the road. But we believe that we are going somewhere--on the way to eternity, and on our way home to God.
A piece of my heart will go with Mason when he leaves KC---heck, who knows, he may stay around for a while. That's one thing about travellers, they take their sweet time about everything. I would guess $20 of my money will go with him when he leaves too. I don't want to talk him out of going or warn him of dangers on the way. I imagine his parents got that all in before he left Omaha. I want him to go, to live a little wildly, to learn who he really is, to risk a little or a lot. But I do want him to pass this way again...I guess I am talking about my Caleb, too.
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