3,350 Miles Later

Six weeks ago tomorrow, the Smith family landed in Kansas City, MO.  We're presently still in the KC area, but over the last six weeks we've driven over 3,350 miles across the Midwest and Southwest of the US.  In that time we've visited friends and family, debriefed regarding the Dublin mission with our home church in Austin, interviewed with a couple of churches in West and North Texas and have finally settled on a new place to live, work, and serve the Lord.  On August 30 I will "officially" start work as the Associate Minister at the Burleson Church of Christ.  We're moving to Burleson (15 miles south of downtown Fort Worth) this Friday and Ashlyn starts school on Monday, August 24. After living out of suitcases the past 40 plus days it will be nice to finally get settled into a place of our own.  We've made it our life's goal to serve Christ and his church and to work to see the Kingdom of God grow wherever we've happened to live the past 13 years.  After 8 years in Austin and 5 years in Dublin, Ireland, we can't wait to get started on this new adventure! - Shay

Literal Journeys or Just the Metaphorical Kinds

We've been back home in the States for a little over a week and it still feels like we're on holiday (oh, I mean vacation - I need to quit using phrases like toilet instead of restroom and cheers instead of thank you).  I don't think our move and transition has quite sunk in.  I'm not sure if that's something that happens overnight or if just gradually occurs over time.  I'm guessing the latter, but we'll just have to wait and see. 

We spent the 4th of July weekend with Juli's family in Oklahoma and then made our way down to the ATX (Austin, TX) a couple of days ago.  We're presently enjoying time with our dear friends and former colleagues, Roger and Mary Beth McCown and the larger Brentwood Oaks Church of Christ family.  These people in Austin mean so much to us and we are forever in their debt for all they've done for us the past 13 years.

I've worn my emotions on my sleeve a little more than I typically do the past few weeks and I'm sure that will continue for the next few as I continue to process all that I've witnessed God do in the lives of our loved ones back in Ireland.  Our family has forever been changed for the better by our experiences these past 5 years.  I can confidently say that the last 5 years of my life have been both the best and some of the hardest.  It's been a half decade I'll never forget.  But we're looking forward to the next chapter in our lives as well.  We are certain that it was time for us to return home and we want to continue to love Jesus, follow him, and share his love with those around us wherever God leads us next.  

One thing I've been reminded of since 2010 is that God always sojourns with his people.  In fact, the Biblical narrative is one of an unsettled people journeying home.  So whether our sojourns include literal journeys, or just the metaphorical kinds, we can be certain that as Jesus promised us, he will never leave us or forsake us.  He'll go with us to the very end of the age. - Shay 

A New Adventure Begins

I've always enjoyed sharing the things I love with other people.  If I find a great new restaurant, I want to let people know.  If I've seen an amazing new film, I want to spread the word.  If I've discovered a cool underground band, I try to do my part to get them heard by a wider audience.  And if I've had the chance to visit somewhere nice, I want others to do the same.

For the past 5 years, Ireland has become a home, not just a place we've dropped in to see.  In fact, I would guess Juli, Ashlyn, and I have seen more of this little island than most of its born and bred residents.  There are some stunning areas of natural beauty dotted with towns and villages that are the definition of quaintness.  So it's with great pleasure that we will welcome my sister Misty and 3 of her 4 children (her oldest son, Nathan, visited last summer) tomorrow morning.  My parents are flying in today, but they've already been here before, so it won't be quite the unveiling that awaits the Boyles.  We hope to take in most of Ireland's rugged and wild coast land as well some of its inland jewels.  For Juli, Ashlyn, and me, it will be a nice way to say goodbye to the Garden of Eden of the North Atlantic.  20 more days and then a new adventure begins. - Shay

Very Fond of Each One of Us

I just finished reading The Shack by William P. Young for the second time.  I found the story more compelling and the theology even richer this go around.  I didn't have a child when I first read the book, but now that my daughter Ashlyn is around the same age of the tragic girl Missy, I had to work hard to not empathize too much with the protagonist, Mack.  I can't imagine what it must be like to experience that kind of loss.  But we all know that someone somewhere suffers immensely every single day.  One of the big issues raised in the book is how people of faith come to grips with the tragedies and injustices of life.  Where is God in natural disasters?  Why does he sometimes intervene in the face of human evil, whereas other times he restrains himself?  A lot of other theological issues get analyzed in the course of the narrative, but I'll let you read it (or reread it) yourself.  One thing that stands out more than anything else in the book is that we have a God who is very fond of each one of us.  We were made for  relationship with this God and one day, though not always evident from our point of view, the seemingly senseless stuff of our world will finally make sense.  Amen. - Shay   

40

Forty is a very Biblical number.  It rained 40 days and 40 nights during the flood.  The children of Israel spent 40 years wandering around the wilderness.  David reigned as King for 40 years.  After his baptism, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wild to fast for 40 days before he began his ministry.  Usually, 40 was representative of the complete and total time an event lasted, whether or not it was literally and exactly 40 days or years. 

Our family has 40 days left in Ireland.  For us it is literally 40 days until we complete the entirety of our sojourn on this little green isle.  A lot can happen in 40 years or even 40 days.  Lord, make it rain, but not literally! - Shay

Get Real

On Thursday evenings, a number of Dubs (and wannabe Dubs...I am one) have been getting together in a local coffee shop to read and discuss the first epistle of John.  In this beautiful, spiraling prose that borders on poetry, the author keeps stressing that faith in Jesus Christ is grounded in the reality of God's Son taking on a real flesh and blood body in the man Yeshua of Nazareth.  The writer of this epistle is battling an early form of Gnosticism which denied certain, if not all aspects of the incarnation.  This ancient heresy claimed that true spirituality is found through non-material means, most explicitly realized in a special form of knowledge (gnosis is the Greek word for knowledge, hence the term Gnosticism).  This teaching was elitist and led to divisions in the Christian community.  It's emphasis on the ethereal had the tendency to disengage its practitioners from the realities of life in one extreme direction, while allowing unhindered moral license in another (if the material world doesn't count then what one does with one's body is inconsequential).  Neither of these two extremes properly expressed the ethos of the Christian faith and by denying the foundational tenets of life in Jesus, the Gnostics had cut themselves off from the very source of true spirituality.  John rightly described them as "antichrists".

I've heard that there are a few Gnostic churches springing up in our modern world.  I find this disturbing, but not surprising.  Over the past few years I've met a number of people who embrace neo-gnostic philosophies when it comes to spirituality.  But I also think our present world is in danger of disengaging from reality as much, if not more than the ancient gnostics in other areas of life.  For instance, how often do people miss out on meaningful conversation and relationship with the person(s) sitting right in front of them?  It's not uncommon to walk down the busy city streets in Dublin and pass dozens of people who are glued to their smartphones while (sort of) navigating other pedestrians and traffic.  Many of the cars these people are dodging have drivers who are just as preoccupied with their mobile devises.  As dangerous as this may be from a purely physical perspective, it poses even more social and spiritual risks to our society.  The Matrix was prophetic, but instead of people being unaware that they're "plugged in", many are simply voluntarily signing up for a life of (virtual) reality.  But I can't keep from thinking that this (un)real life isn't as rich and fulfilling as it could be.

First John provides some answers for us I believe.  The theme of the entire letter is summed up in 4:7-12, "Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.  God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him.  In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.  Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.  No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us."

It all begins and ends in God - it all begins and ends in love.  How is God love?  In his very being, he exists in loving relationship: Father, Son, and Spirit.  We as humanity are made in his image - made for loving relationship.  God so loved us that despite our sin and brokenness, he entered into the mess of human reality.  He not only made us in his image, he took on our image in the real life man, Jesus of Nazareth.  Those who embrace this Jesus and choose to live life through him have the opportunity to not only receive the love of God, but to pour that love out to others.  This requires us to live and engage with life the way that Jesus did - to get down and dirty; to get real.  It's not easy.  Sometimes it would be nicer to escape to the various worlds floating out there in cyberspace.  But just as true life wasn't found in the ethereal world of the Gnostics, but in the tangible day to day encounters of people expressing love for one another in action, so the abundant life promised by Jesus, I believe, more often is manifested in our day to day encounters with real people and (un-virtual) reality than through the online world.  I pray Christ's body will embrace the opportunity to offer an alternative lifestyle to the world around us.  Let's get real! - Shay

Presence

In exactly 7 weeks from today our family will be boarding a plane bound for home.  I didn't begin to actively keep up with the amount of time we have left in Ireland until a few weeks ago.  Now it's hard not to think about it.  I've always tried to be fully present wherever I'm at, but at the same time, I've always been a dreamer with a heavy dose of hope and optimism thrown in for good measure. 

Not only am I beginning to imagine a future back home in the States, the past few weeks have provided  me with the opportunity to look back on our time in Ireland.  I've had the opportunity to do a lot of reflection lately.  It's been said that we live our lives going forward, but we understand them looking backwards.  I think there's a lot of truth in that and in fact, I think we are far more prepared for the future when we have a good perspective on the past.

So over the next 7 weeks as I engage with people in Bible study, theological reflection, and in communal worship, I'll be balancing the past, present, and future.  I am so thankful that we have a God who is fully present to us in all three of those arenas. - Shay