Tuesday, May 25, 2010

A Senior Moment

For those of you who were away this past Sunday, amid the new members, baptisms, and elder installations, we recognized our four graduating high school seniors: Isabel, Cassie, Courtney and Suzanne. These four young women were eighth graders when they took part in the very first confirmation class I taught here at Covenant. I remember getting to know these four lovely girls, marveling at their thoughts and questions, and looking forward to how they would grow during their high school years.

High school is coming to a close for them now. Each of these young women have been a joy to watch grow and I can’t wait to see what God has in store for them. Seeing them reach this milestone has also made me stop and think. Once we get passed our school years, there aren’t as many built in opportunities to stop and notice how far we have come or how surprising our journey may have been or anything like that. We also lack the built in time to look forward and wonder where God will keep leading us.

I try to practice a daily examine—a spiritual practice in which you look back at the day, notice where God was, where you may have succeeded or missed being a light to someone else. I think adding a more long-term examine, perhaps yearly, perhaps every several years, would be a helpful practice. I invite you to try this practice with me, to stop and reflect on your life over a longer period of time and God’s hand in it. Being intentional about noticing the greater movement of God in our lives, that has to be a good thing. In fact, as soon as I finish writing this, I think I’ll do just that. Maybe as soon as you finish reading this, you can too.

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