Tonight I was sitting in vespers listening intently to the speaker talk. She has talked many times here and usually she is very redundant, but I try to pay as much attention as I can. She used a verse that got me to thinking. She used Ecclesiastes 12:1, it's a very memorable verse, it says, “Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, "I have no delight in them". At this point I kind of got lost in thought. I got slightly nostalgic and started to remember back in time, to “better” times easier times. Back to high school and the things I’ve been taught about God throughout my life. Remember your creator in the days of your youth before the hard times hit, that’s the essence of what the verse says. I realized that even if I didn’t like some of the teachers that have taught me about God, I still learned about God, and then I started to take my learning into my own hands. The things that I learned when life was “easy” prepared me for the struggles of what life is like in the “real” world. I’ve been seeing this now that I’m out and on my own. “Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth; before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, "I have no delight in them", it says a lot for my parents, for my teachers and for the Holy Spirit. Among other things, this year has done a lot for my faith as it deals with me. It has forced me to step out from under the wonderful security of a Godly home to make my own Godly home, I have realized how hard it is, and have gained a whole new insight on what it must be like to be a parent in the regard of providing a Godly environment.
At the end of her talk, she asked when you go home, remember what you have learned here and change your life accordingly. That got me to thinking too. I came up with the idea that her statement was based on a preface that I’m not sure was correct, at least not for everyone. I think the preface she based it upon is that there was something wrong with your life before you came here, but I don’t know about everyone else, but I think my life was pretty good before I left, there is always room for growth, but other than that, I’m not sure, something that is going to require more thought. Personally, I’m very much looking forward to doing a lot of the things I did before I left. Things like lunch at Jo and Terrill’s on Sabbath, spending time with Beth, talking with old friends, talking to my parents, seeing one more sunset over the Rockies, and spending time with family to name just a few.
Excitement has been building this week. This week brought three very special days in the process of coming home. The first day was Monday the 27th; it was the one month until I come home. The second day came 2 days later on Wednesday; it marked the 4 week/28 days mark. The third day is tomorrow, Sabbath, which marks the 25 day countdown that will happen. The next few weeks will fly by I know, sooner than I know it I’ll be heading to the airport to bid farewell to the island that has been my “home” for the past 10 months nearly. I’ll remember the words of my Uncle Larry when he told me, “Go, do your time, and do as much as you can, then after that’s done, be ready to come home.”
Next week is our week of prayer. All the high school teachers were asked to speak, even given “scripts” of what to say, they are using a week of prayer schedule called “why”. The particular day I picked was Thursday. I didn’t pick it because it was late in the week, I didn’t pick it for its contents per se, I didn’t even read it before hand, the title caught me. The title is “the quite shout.” Being a fan of Simon and Garfunkel’s song “sounds of silence” might have had some sort of a draw toward this title or maybe it was the fact that silence used correctly can say more than anything, either way, I guess it doesn’t matter how I got it, the important thing is that was the one I chose. The story centers on the life of Mary Magdalene. Her stories in the bible are among my favorite, it shows such a great side of Jesus’ compassion. The talk is supposed to open with the story of Jesus saving her from a stoning, I love this story, Jesus says, “Neither do I condemn you either, go and sin no more.” Wow, it makes you look at your life and ask yourself, how many times Jesus/God has said that to you, probably more times than I wish to remember. The first time we see Jesus and Mary is of course important, but I think more than that first story is, as Paul Harvey would say, the rest of the story. The rest of the story goes to prove that Jesus forgives us, but then he doesn’t leave us, he lives, and works with us the rest of our lives.
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