Penultimate
Entry
July
29
Jetlag has a curious way of
interrupting life while one is in the midst of it. Frequent flyers understand
this, and come to expect it. It is not usual to suddenly drift off in the
middle of the evening news, or to awaken in the early hours of the morning,
raring to go! A brief conversation with one’s body tells it “reset the internal
clock please, it’s not time to get up yet.” Sometimes it works, sometimes it’s
not worth the fight. Time for sleep will come another day, or maybe even this
afternoon? Today, I awake to a peaceful, morning soaking rain. Having missed
out on the heat wave of the past several weeks, and having enjoyed the
temperateness of the past two days since I came home, this rain is a welcome
change of pace.
I awoke to today’s entry in my online
daily devotional:
O God, you
are my God; early will I seek you: my soul thirsts for you, my flesh longs for
you in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is. Psalms 63:1
Are you constantly busy but accomplishing
very little? Do you feel like your life is always revving in high gear but you
are stuck in neutral? It is so easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of life
we are spinning around in circles and lose all sense of direction for our
lives.
That first sentence caught my eye: “Are
you constantly busy but accomplishing very little?” I have to
say sometimes yes to the first half of that, but no to the second half.
Actually, I was just thinking about how un-hectic this summer has been, perhaps
this is the best and truest summer I have had in a long time. Have I
accomplished a lot this summer? Yes, I have. And, summer is definitely not over
yet.
Then
the question comes: “Do you feel
like your life is always revving in high gear but you are stuck in neutral?” Absolutely
not,
online devo! That is exactly the opposite of how I am
experiencing life today, post-Ukraine Trip #8. I am most definitely not currently
“revving in high gear” but I am definitely not stuck in neutral. More
precisely, I am resting in, and definitely caught up in “the whirlwind of life” [in the best and most spiritual “Ruach”
sense of that word] but I am certainly not “spinning around in circles” nor have I lost direction for
my life. I still seek the Lord this morning as I should every morning, and I
still need to thirst more and more for His hydrating presence in my life. But,
I am not lacking in direction or feeling like I am stuck. Most definitely not. In
fact, after these amazing three weeks in Ukraine, I feel more directional, with
a clearer call on my life and a more specific set of “marching orders” than I
have in a long, long time.
As
my jetlag recedes more and more, I am left with such sweet memories of this
time. So much of it is chronicled in the previous posts I have made.
Anticipating our final home concert later this week, it will be such a
wonderful reunion with the other members of Evangelion (sadly, without our
Ukrainian “Magnificent Seven” but happy to reunite with our Home Chorale
members). Olesya, Marina, Anya, Oxsana, Vitaly, Serhiy and Sasha – we already
miss you and wish you could be with us this Thursday for our home concert at
Benson Great Hall. But, you WILL be with us – in Spirit – and we will sing once
again that beautiful song “Sweet Home” with two countries in mind – yours and
ours. I know “Prayer for Two Countries” will have a deeper and more bittersweet
taste to it for me (and for many of us) without all of you there with us.
Veenker and I will do our best to be the chanting priests in the Gretchaninoff,
and I know the rest of the program will be a wonderful musical reunion. I’ve
missed singing it. I’m sure the rest of the Evangelion members have, too.
O God, you are my God; early will I seek you…
It’s
not even 8am yet. Now to get hydrated and to ready to experience a great day of
worship, family and a celebration of Christian community. No drought here –
there is Living Water galore.
Postscript
and preamble to this day: This
afternoon I am headed south to the wedding of a dear former student from NWC. He was on the Baltic Tour with the
Northwestern College Choir back in 2010. Somehow, there is a special symmetry
to the timing of this wedding, as it falls on the heels of my Ukraine trip
where I spent such quality time with Sasha and his family, Serhiy (the still
newlywed) and Vitaly, and in the homes of dear Ukrainian friends. The family
continues to grow. Slava Bohu!