Flying High

I had one of those days today that do not come that often. One of those days where you can look back at it and say, 'Wow. I don't think I would have changed anything about that.' Such days are rare and need to be cherished.

First, today was the big preaching day. Three weeks ago, Bruce asked me to speak during the 2 Sunday morning services at our church today. I was very excited about it for a couple of reasons. First, I love to preach anytime God provides the opportunity; and this was a big one. Coming right on the heels of our return from the mission trip, it felt like the culmination of something that had been gaining momentum for a while. And I think that turned out to be the case. Even the disappointment from finding out that I'm not really in the running any more to be our interim preaching pastor didn't tarnish it. (As I noted in previous posts, our church is currently without a head pastor. In the interim, they are going to hire a pastor who will fill in every Sunday for the 2 services until a new pastor is called. I had hoped that I might fill that interim role, but that is apparently not to be. And that's alright. God has plenty of other things for me to do.) I felt empowered by the Holy Spirit in a way that I haven't felt very often in the last couple of years. I felt very much like God was using me to accomplish something bigger than myself. And that is an amazing thing. When I was finished, I was drained but confident that I had delivered the message I was supposed to. And that is a feeling that inspires awe in me every time it happens.

After church we had lunch with friends and that was a great joy. It was one of those times when I could pull back from what was going on and truly appreciate the pureness of life in the simplest things. Smiles and conversations take on a surrealistic quality that make them somehow special, even though they are in essence no different than a thousand other smiles or a thousand other conversations. But it's as if a heightened awareness of God's presence in the world allows us to experience people as he does, if only for a few moments in time. Those moments become untainted by rancor, selfishness, worry, busyness. It passes; but the memory of it is like a drug.

After lunch and a brief repose, I went flying. My friend, Scott, has his pilots license and a plane (how jealous am I) and had invited me to fly with him. We probably spent an hour and a half aloft and I got to fly the plane for about 30 minutes. And I mean I actually was doing the flying. How cool is that? I mean it's not like I was doing loops and barrel rolls, but I made the turns, changed altitude, picked landmarks. It was amazing. And seeing God's incredible creation from that vantage point, while doing something I always dreamed of was a most excellent exclamation point on a most excellent day.

And then I got to go to Sno Biz (awesome shave ice) with 2 of my 3 favorite girls--Sandi and Becca.

God is good--all the time.
Mike