The Long Haul

Soulfari has been quiet for months, as you may or not have noticed. The work of pastoring/writing/speaking (not to mention being husband and father…oh, I guess I just did mention it) has kept me entangled with many words meant for venues other than blogging. It’s amazing when seasons change and the transition period covers your tracks from one path to the next. It is these in-between places that the settling dust, kicked up from multiple life events, slowly re-covers the steps of the journey here.

Journey dust amazes me…

Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing. James 1:2-4

The journey of 2016 is a few months old; an interesting start that has included a serious (is there any other kind?)  health scare (my wife), multiple speaking engagements (for me) and the challenge of making life work with meaning for my family. Throw in pastoring a small church, working full-time and part-time (freelance), multiple writing projects and I wonder when dust actually has time to settle.

But maybe this dust is different…

The long haul of a committed life is covered by this powder, full of events, memories, and emotions; it is the history of the journey. Unlike the dust of inactivity, coating a life with its own myopic grime of the ordinary, journey dust mixes with life and carries it as it travels. This dust grinds away the grime, sandblasting our spirit and revealing our heart as we discover the purity of its work in us.

The endurance that joy produces fuels for the long haul of dust distribution, leaving marks of life throughout my voyage on this planet of dust. There is purity in these specs because Father God directs my steps, giving life through the crop dusting seeds I plant as I travel with Him.

The journey is successful because of who is watching…

Then they said, “Ask God whether or not our journey will be successful.” “Go in peace,” the priest replied. “For the LORD is watching over your journey.” Judges 18:5-6

The long haul approach is a commitment to the heart of journey giver, fully trusting in the life long events of change and growth because He is good. We can go in peace because the Prince of peace travels with us.

Journey well my friends…