Pilgrim's Progress

This month we celebrated 30 years of marriage. For the better part of that we've been in Papua New Guinea. This year finds us waiting to return, living in a semi-packed state with as much in boxes as possible without totally disrupting normal life.

As Tony is at a gathering of friends in Texas, it seemed a good time to get away and just recover from the non-stop movement of the past five years. At times, when enough things happen, you just "numb out" and keep going. Personally, I've been doing that for a long time. Anyone who has moved forty times or more recognizes numbness as a great way to approach another move.

So to celebrate we headed up to Maine. Maine is easy, relatively inexpensive and it's not crowded. There is something about being in a place that is simple and quiet that puts life back in perspective. The ocean is vast. We are small. A very clear reminder of our great impact in the universe. The birds abound. Each is cared for individually by Our Father in Heaven. I even had to laugh to myself as I went through a plate of steamers and enjoyed a lobster the next day, that those "Levitically unclean foods" I so enjoy are a reminder that it is "for freedom that Christ set us free". Back to bondage? No way.

When we got home we had a bit more news of things overseas. Neil's work permit is "all set" but for some official transcripts which apparently now need to be notarized. Neil is out doing that now. The issues of housing, safety and schooling remain unresolved and the fist two issues may not be resolved until we are actually in PNG. Yes, I wish it were all settled. No, I don't enjoy living in a state of perpetual transition. Yes, I remember that we are looking for a better city, one whose Builder and Maker is God. Yes, I feel like I am getting a bit old for this. Yes, we are supposed to live our entire lives as pilgrims and strangers on the earth.

Still sojourning, and praying for the next stop on the pilgrimage.

Psalm 84

Pearly Gates and Redeeming Pain

While we've been waiting to receive our work permits to PNG, I've been reading Randy Alcorn's book "Heaven". I really enjoy the book and it's made heaven sound more attractive than I have pictured it when I hear it described as a perpetual song service. It will indeed be magnificent and reflect the Creative One whose Glory will be seen in every detail.

In the twists, turns, ups and downs of the last five years, I, to be totally honest, have asked God if He would reassure me that there is something redeeming in all that has transpired. While I will admit this is not super spiritual I have asked,"Would the world fall off its axis if we went from A to B without something being excruciatingly painful?" We haven't cornered the market on difficulty, but most honest people have asked the same question at some point in their life. I have reviewed events and said, in all truthfulness, "It was less painful getting hit by the car".

Then I realized something about gates made of pearls. Pearls, are of course, born from a painful foreign substance that gets lodged in the oyster's shell. Oyster's don't get up and say, "Let me go find something uncomfortable so I can make a pearl". It's one of those thing that "happens" to the oyster and there's not much the oyster can do about it. I'm not an oyster (really) but I can imagine that "pearl making" is not a wonderful experience.

I looked at the gates in a new way. How amazing and redeeming that the entrance to that great city is by passing through gates which in part are made of a substance born from pain. Born from His pain. Born from ours. Yes, there is something redeeming and even eternal and glorious in that.