Paul, I live in a life immersed in ministry very much as you describe.

I have a theory that as we get older, we become more and more the person we always really were-- that all the surface crap gets burnished off until all that is visible is that real person (for good or ill). A bit like Dorian Grey meets the Velveteen Rabbit. Anyway, I say this as my "credential" to assure you that NONE of these people you savor, now, have actually passed out of your life. Trust me-- they're all in there.

At church some folks see empty pews. I see graduations. I see not a building that lacks arrivals. I see a people being teachers.

We get to choose our own viewpoints on all these matters. Look forward to graduating, yourself, knowing how much of YOU is still present in the silly, callow people you know now as the "youngsters." When they get their burnishing, trust me, what will be visible will be, partly, yourself. You see, a good number of them will hang onto those good things as much as I cling to my little cockfighter, and those are the things they will count on and embody as they live their lives.

I see all of this on a weekly basis. It's worth a lot of good-doing to choose to see it that way.


So gogogogoGO! Never mind the details! Just pass on what you have been holding. Set it loose in this world, as quick as you reasonably can.

~Susan