Life's Markers

Any journey has markers along the way to help me know where I stand.

The drive to our cabin takes about 3 ½ hours, but I mentally break it up into three sections.  My first goal is to get to the Cities…then I look for the Famous Dave’s just past the Cities.  When I get to Famous Dave’s I don’t stop the car (unless traffic is backed up!).  It’s not the end of the journey…it’s just a marker on the road top let me know where I stand.

When starting a 5K race I don’t have the finish line in mind right from the starting gun.  I focus on the first mile…then the second…then the third.  I have a goal in mind for each portion of the race that will lead me to the proper finish.   I don’t get to the first mile marker and take a seat!  It’s not the end of the journey…just a marker in the race.

At this time of year in 1989 I prepared to graduate from high school.  With my classmates I reflected on where we’d been together.  Sappy songs and sentiments abounded.  Yet once I graduated from high school I went back to school once again.  That fall I enrolled at Northwestern University and started all over again.  Four years later I again prepared to graduate, and once again I prepared to go back to school, this time at Luther Seminary.  Each graduation held a moment of importance, but I did not stop my learning!  I didn’t graduate and stop my school career.  They weren’t the end of the journey…just a marker on the path to becoming a pastor.

Nearly 20 years ago Shannon and I stood at an altar, pledging our lives to each other in marriage.   We’d had a year of dating and a year of engagement to prepare us for that moment.  It’s now been two decades of ‘better or worse’ and we’ve been blessed to spend time with each other.  I didn’t walk out of the marriage service to head off to live my own life.  It wasn’t the end of the journey with Shannon…just an important step on the path of our life together.

In the spring of 1971 my parents brought me to a church and presented me for baptism.  That began a life of faith that continues to this day.  I’ve had many important markers on that journey of faith, but it’s a faith that continues to this day.  At no time have I felt like I’d ‘arrived’ in faith.  I never got to a plateau where I felt like my faith felt complete.  My journey with my God continues every day.  It’s a relationship that began in baptism and will never end for eternity. 

In 8^th grade I joined my fellow classmates in standing in front of a congregation, claiming the promises made to me in baptism, but that moment came as simply another step in a long journey of faith.

This coming Sunday eleven young men and women from Peace will come together to stand before the community of faith.  They will make promises…and they will hear God’s promises to them.  They have had the opportunity to spend the past few months in deep reflection on their faith.  They’ve talked with a parent about Jesus, creation, the Holy Spirit, prayer, Holy Baptism, Holy Communion, and Scripture.  They’ve taken the time to put their faith into words, explaining it both in a paper and in a conversation with me. 

This process comes as a step on their journey of faith.  They don’t have faith all figured out, though they have a better understanding of where they are in this moment of faith.  Life’s challenges will arise and impact their faith journey.  Commitment Sunday is not the end of a journey…just a marker in the relationship with God.