Guten Tag!

We awoke to the alarm's punctuated ngh-ngh-ngh, and held each other under the warm feather-down comforter "just a few more minutes," before crossing Monday morning's threshold into another week. This last weekend was beautiful... sunshine, relaxation... and lots of time with the Torres Family. My first thought this morning was the realization, again, of the shortness of life. And the eternal-ness of eternity.





Although we've known the Torres' just a little over a year, we spent more time with them this last weekend than all year. They PCS, (meaning the government is transferring them to another station), this coming Friday. And I keep asking myself why we didn't take advantage of the time we had. In fact, lately I've been doing a lot of thinking about what matters. Mine and LeRoy's list of "What We Can Take to Heaven With Us" has come to mind: People, People, People... in no particular order.





While I was in Spokane in August, a girlfriend and I spent a night at her place on Lake Coeur d'Alene. As we sat there lounging peacefully, catching up with one another's lives, people kept showing up. I mean, they didn't just pass by in a boat and wave a hello, they saw us, paused, and then joined us. It was beautiful! These people sat down with us and engaged in conversation, laughing with us, mulling over lake politics, the real estate economy, their latest projects, what they had cooking in the oven presently, the acquaintance they'd met recently. To me, it was an unfolding metaphor of the most important moments in life... of how I think life should look on a general moment by moment basis. I wish I could remember their names, but I can still see their faces -- their smiles. I can still hear their laughter and feel the warmth of their friendship. One woman invited us over for breakfast the next morning -- and oh, how I wanted to drop everything to spend more time with these people!





That was the most difficult part of my visit to the States -- I wanted to bring everyone home with me when I returned to Germany.





I started reading a book over the weekend that my girlfriend loaned to me, "One Thing You Can't Do In Heaven" by Mark Cahill. And Sunday morning during our family meeting, we decided to go through the book, "Just Walk Across the Room," by Bill Hybels. I just keep thinking, if we're made for eternity... by a God Who longs for us to enjoy intimacy with Him... then it's probably a good idea to care about what God cares about... people...





A friend of mine emailed a couple of days ago to tell about their upcoming trip to California to visit their son and his wife who is just about to have a baby. I could feel the passion and excitement coming through her email as she told me about the "refinished rocking horse" and the book box they're taking down to their grandchild. I read the line in her email, "I just want to hold him and read to him," over and over as I drank in the sweetness of those dreams. The simplicity. The eternal-ness of those values. The community...

Thanks for "listening" to me share what's most pressing on my heart these days...

Oh! And by the way, I got several emails from people saying they couldn't link to the website I posted! Oops! I gave the wrong one... ugh... It's www.therebelution.com and you can get to their blog from there also.