Our Hangout

good friends

This weekend we (family) went back to Toronto. We went back to celebrate my (ed's) mom's birthday.

And, for the first time since we left, we went back to Toronto and spent time with our friends from Richview, as friends of ours, Jessey and Lisa celebrated their day of marriage. It was a wonderful time!

It was good to be with old friends!

I was sitting down while the ceremony was going on when someone sat beside me, and hugged me and began kissing me (okay my neck). My shirt was full of lipstick. Luckily my wife was sitting beside me. Just kidding.

This was someone who I had the privilege, as a pastor, of being there at the right time. Through much pain and much healing.

Yesterday I felt loved. It was a day of joy for me. There was a clear time of rejoicing at seeing friends and just reconnecting. And sharing what God's been doing in our and their lives

It was painful to not hear it in words but to talk to some friends who haven't figured out how to deal with us leaving...for whom it was "personal". Some who never had time to say goodbye, or who came back from the summer to find out we were gone. It was hard to hear them try to articulate how they felt about that.

So I walked away excited and hurting (just a little). Excited, because it's always exciting to see old friends and share in the celebrations of each other's lives. Hurt, because as a pastor, I don't think there are easy ways to move on without leaving people hurting.

Still, even that is exciting. It's exciting because it says we had and have relationship. We connected! And I look forward to seeing them again, and keeping close enough, even if only through updates and irregular visits, but close enough to still be a part of each others lives...until the pain goes, and we can always celebrate each other's life.

To Jessey and Lisa, who began their life as husband and wife yesterday...May God bless you and fill you with himself more and more so that in everything you will know the great depths of his love and strength as you grow together, and serve together, celebrate together, and even when you mourn together. May, together, you continue to truly live the abundant life he has prepared for you.

Today, I celebrate friends! The many I've know all my life. The many I've lost touch with. The many I wouldn't even recognize if I passed them on the street today. Relationships, God's greatest gift to us. I long for relationships that go beyond the external, that touch deeply, so deeply that when you see each other after a time away, you lose all composure and you hug and you kiss and you cry because you celebrate each other's lives.

God, help me to be that kind of a friend!

Posted by ed