It’s been nearly two months now since Laurie and I left the plains of Red Oak for the fields of Forney.
As part of the move, we of course carried with us a number of dear memories and relationships that we made during our four years with encounter.
Luckily, we don’t leave these things behind when we move — we carry them with us.
Yesterday, Brian and I were trying to remember when it was that he shared an illustration that’s stuck with me and others ever since.
Setting out four construction cones around him, Brian drove home the point that we should be building spaces of grace wherever we go — especially as followers of The Way.
It ultimately became one of the three tenants of encounter…
- Spaces of Grace
- Intentional Relationships
- Relevant Truth
You may have noticed that this has also become one of my mantras as well and the ideas and themes played out in my novel as well.
As Brian and I dug through the archives, trying to find the message, I listened to a number of the podcast archives from the last several years and was reminded again and again about the things I loved about our community.
And now that we’ve moved away it’s sometimes depressing to think that I may never find a community like encounter again.
But we move forward.
And even in my nostalgia, I realize that encounter wasn’t perfect (and it never will be). People aren’t perfect and thus their communities aren’t perfect either.
We’re all flawed and we’re all broken and in need of reconciliation and healing.
So we move forward.
I have hope for the future. I know that this move was exactly what we needed to do. I don’t know what our next community of faith will look like, but I’ll continue the mantra and I’ll continue the journey.
I really look forward to building new communities right where we are and joining our experiences with the experiences of others.
It’s like growing a hybrid rose. You take the best qualities of one rose and merge them with the best qualities of another and end up with something totally new and beautiful.
It may carry some of the traits the original roses, but hopefully it will blossom into something even greater.
The same holds true for building a family as well.
We enter into marriage with our own traditions, expectations and memories and then try and blend them together with someone else’s.
And then as kids enter the picture (or two!) they begin to pick up the traits, traditions and stories of their parents and you hope and pray they turn out at least a little bit better than yourselves. And the cycle continues…
So we’ll move forward. — enjoying the memories of the past and looking expectantly to what’s around the next corner.
As a “nostalgic bonus”, here are a couple videos Laurie and I put together for encounter’s two year anniversary (Sept. 2007).
Laurie’s video:
Mine and Smiley’s video:
