Between The Sunsets
September 10, 2009
Here I am again. Sitting on the warm sand watching the sun set down across Lake Michigan… and it seems as if we just did this a few days ago. What bears the truth however is that sitting on the blanket in front of me, eating our stuffed crust pizza, is a teenage girl and two others that just a few sunsets ago I had to carry to the beach and place a sun-sequester camp up around. Now, they helped carry volleyballs and beach chairs.
These Labor Day sunsets have become one of a very few traditions. They also are a moratorium for us. We pause at this gateway, say “goodbye,” to the summer, with all of its travel, speaking and beauty, and “hello,” to the fall with all of its staffing, programming and a sad melancholy. Its not winter, but it is signaling the coming. Dawn and I find ourselves wistfully gazing at the view, while secretly bracing for the rush.
Today has been less warm than we desired and a bit more overcast but here, in the last few moments a glorious neon red globe descends towards a cool turquoise blanket. It is a blazing and spectacular terminus. It also is a rite of passage.
It is here that I am reminded to set aside the things that have been accomplished and dragged into the next chapter. It is here that I ask myself two questions.
Have I done all that I could this last year in order to serve Christ? My answer is almost always, “No.” I’m not sire many people evaluate themselves on this level of spiritual accountability. It is the query that all leaders must ask. It is here that I am reminded that “Good enough never is.”
What is going to happen differently because of me? This question doesn’t let me off the hook with wishful thinking. It places responsibility squarely on my shoulders because of the call God has placed on my life. It is here that I answer for the next year. It is this question that set up what will happen between this sunset and the next.
It is here that I throw myself on God’s grace and pray for God’s blessing. After all, each sunset is different.
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