"Every step an arrival." This is a phrase that goes back to Eugene Peterson. The idea is to consider each step we take in life as an arrival into something new. There is always more...more of the great land of God's goodness to walk into, more of Christlikeness to grow into us. This also means that each next step taken means leaving behind the previous arrival. While each arrival is a precious step that brings us further up and into the great story that never ends, it becomes transitory. This gives me language to consider each day as genuinely new. It's not just that each day is new with possibility for us to do something with it. It's that each day is a new arrival to a place where the Lord "through whom and for whom" all things were created has set a table before us. Even in the presence of our enemies. Each new day is an arrival to where the Spirit hovers, preparing to make something new. I think of it like arriving to the top of Mt. Washington a...
I suppose we can call our trip to Nashville a tradition at this point. There might be even be a sense of "we do this every time" or "been there done that" to some parts of the trip: visiting a certain coffee shop, making a trip to Hattie B's, going to Germantown, or visiting Franklin. While we all look forward to getting together, there might even be a sense of boredom with some aspects of our trip and time together that creeps in. Hard to imagine, I know, but if we're honest, it can happen on trips like this because we're humans in an age of novelty. Well, we all remember Moses on the banks of the river... And we all remember Pharaoh, he just wouldn't do it... But the Lord he gave to Moses a word for the people... I think about the Israelites celebrating Passover, year after year. Same place, same people, same story, same traditions, same rituals. Some might even ask: haven't we all done this before? They were engaging in the important act o...