It contained a week at Mt. Hermon with 180 other pastors, sharing lives and hearing challenging messages at a conference that has continued for 37 years. Then there were a few short days in San Francisco with daughter JJ, seeing her new apartment and learning more about her Netflix work. Finally there has been a week of travel up the west coast, visiting friends and family and arriving in Shoreline to spend a few days renewing relationships, visiting my mother and sister, and enjoying sights and sounds that were our home for twenty years.
Through the month the outstanding reminder has been of God’s goodness in both relationships and in creation. It is an awesome privilege to have relationships with other pastors which have spanned the entire length of my church ministry life. The West Coast Presbyterian Pastors’ Conference began with a small group of us, young in ministry, covenanting together to meet eight days after Easter. We arranged speakers, a place, and an agenda, and fulfilled the covenant. And we have been doing the same for all these years. In the span of time the conference has been going on we have shared joys and tragedies, celebrated signs of the power of God in our various places of ministry, and prayed over those places in which that power seemed so far away. It has been a rare place, a rare experience, and priceless relationships, and I am so thankful to God for it.
And the same is true of other people Nancy and I have visited in the past few weeks. A friend from high school (we have hardly changed, of course), family and partners in ministry from Fresno, Clarkston and Shoreline. Again it is the relationships of life and serving which bind us together, and for which I am so thankful.
Then there is the beauty. We live in an amazingly beautiful country! The rains of the spring have brought life to hills and colors to fields, clearly reflecting the beauty and design of God.
Nancy and I have driven from the valleys of California to the valleys of Oregon, from the redwoods of the Santa Cruz mountains to the glacial moraine of the Wallowas, from Mt. Shasta to Mt. Rainier. Up and over and down Rattlesnake Grade, into the Snake River Valley, then across the plains of eastern Washington and through the Cascades. The variety of scenes, the beauty of the scenery, and the grandeur of the land is amazing, and Nancy and I are so grateful to be able to soak it in.
In a few days we will return to Greensboro to spend the summer. Then, God willing, on to adventures cycling and serving in various parts of Europe. But for now the time is a time for relishing in the gifts of people who mean so much to us and a country that does as well. It is a time for praising and giving thanks, for enjoying and sharing. It is a time to remember the words of the Psalmist, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name…(Psalm 103:1)
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