Tuesday I wrote about the great cloud of witnesses that surround us as we move through the course of life, offering encouragement, wisdom and companionship. After reviewing the news sites this morning I was discouraged. Standard and Poor's reduced the nation's credit rating, Alabama's gambling/bribery trial is wrapping up while Alabama's government is strangely quiet waiting for the sound of the next shoe dropping, a fighter jet was shot down in Afghanistan, and everybody is blaming everybody else for everything. If you believe the news, the only clouds that surround us are dark and dangerous.
So I took a break, stumbling back into the kitchen to warm up the coffee, and then being distracted by a box of old photographs. With nothing else to do I checked facebook. I am a parasitic facebooker, contributing nothing except the occasional sarcastic comment when one is deserved. But this morning I checked on a few friends that were on my mind.
I am glad I did.
Part of the cloud of witnesses is moving.
Jim and Lisa are moving to North Carolina. Lisa posted that she had secured a teaching job there.
Jim will be entering Duke Divinity School to formally begin the process of becoming an ordained minister. The informal process has been going on for years.
My friendship with Jim began on the first Appalachia Service Project Mission trip that Lester Memorial UMC went on to Bartley, West Virginia. Jim was a freshman or sophomore in high school, I was older than that. We were on the same work team repairing an old house built on a cut out ledge on the side of a mountain in remote coal country. Jim was a skinny young man with the ability to grow a beard in half a day. He took heed of my advice that women loved a guy who could play the guitar. He possessed a sense of humor in a league with Joe Hastings, an ability to figure out how to repair old houses on a par with Randall Conn , a laugh as recognizable as Max Blalock's (although not as loud), and a goodness of spirit all his own.
Jim was active as a youth at Lester and continued to go on summer mission trips to Appalachia. After he went to college he worked on summer staff with ASP, where he met Lisa, who came as a volunteer to his center. They married and now have two wonderful boys, Andrew and Reece. Jim is a civil engineer and Lisa a teacher. They are wonderful parents, loyal friends, and dedicated church members. They have faced challenges in life the past few years, challenges that continue even today, but have continued to grow through the struggle. Jim has known he was called by God for a long, long time. Sometimes God seems to leave out details when He first calls. I think He does that on purpose. But Jim and Lisa knew the call was there, and answered as much of the call as they could understand as they lived their lives. And now it seems they are ready for the next big step.
I teared up as I read Lisa's post about their move. Not out of sadness because Jim and Lisa are moving away. But out of joy because they are moving on, running the race with perseverance the course that has been set, and now made clear.
So some of my cloud is moving toward the horizon. But the distant clouds make the rising and setting of the sun more beautiful, and give us hints of things to come.
I love those guys.
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