Monday, May 17, 2010

Graduation

My little sister graduated last Saturday from Cornerstone Bible Institute in South Dakota. She is a beautiful, intelligent, gifted, graceful and wise woman. I missed being there so much this weekend that I called her twice, once Saturday morning and then again this afternoon. I am proud of you Liz!

Speaking of making phone calls . . . I will call to wish my parents a happy anniversary this week. Denielle's sister calls her faithfully every Saturday just to talk. We even have a voice mail that gets sent to our email address so that when we aren't home or the internet or computer are down, we can still know who tried to call. Super cool. What a blessing this hyper-connected world of communication is. I think I've said this before but I was thinking about it again this weekend as a result of these two brief but lovely phone conversations between continents and hemispheres.

This graduation bit has me reminiscing a little bit as well. The reminiscing started when I put in an old Chris Rice CD on Saturday morning to distract from the boom box that is the little park across the street on sunny weekends. Some of those old songs hold such vivid memories of those good Bible school days. I can almost feel the cold S. Dakota wind as it howls over Battle Mountain or smell that steaming cup of black coffee in the newly christened Flatiron Coffee Bar. A couple of songs put me right back to work at B&B or in the driver's seat of my boss's black '79 camero that I drove for a semester. Then I remember those long, deep and profound moments in God's Word that began to shape the way I think, what I value and the kind of husband and father I am becoming.
I remember those times when I began to wrestle with the high and lofty truths of God's Word for the first time on my own and see modeled in professors and peers the kind of consistent walk with God that I still esteem as examples to follow. I remember those precious but fleeting 'iron-sharpening-iron' relationships we built as classmates.They were good days and months, immersed in the Bible, in ministry, in thought and musty old theology books.

For some silly reason I thought that after I graduated I wouldn't need those kind of relationships or have those kind of friendships or study those books, even worse, not need to dedicate myself to be a student of God's Word. Ou seja, I thought that they would, by some unseen ability, continue on into the future of their own accord. Ou seja, Duh . . . I need God's Word way more profoundly now than I needed it then, and not just for the sermon to preach, teenager to counsel, Bible Study to lead or blog to write.

"More to be desired are they than gold, yea than much find gold. Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb."

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Jon! you're going to make me cry! Thanks for your words: a good reminder and challenge fo' sure.
love you lots!

Jonathan Johnson said...

Great post, honey - thank you for sharing your heart like that! I love the man that you are ~thank you for walking faithfully with God and for leading our family with strength and God's insight.
Yours,
denielle

Unknown said...

Oh John!!! Memories flooded when I read that post......I love u bro!!!!! Thanx for that look into the past

Patricia said...

Awesome post! Thank you for sharing! I think I feel tears running down my cheeks...

Jason and Sadie said...

Hey, where's my phone call? Or email? Or skype chat? Anything???