From Sampler to Sower

I shared yesterday about our youth group’s favorite travel game, The Top Three.  On our ski trip this weekend, one of my favorite questions came as a surprise: What were your top three favorite years? Like most of the best questions in the top three game, it’s deceptively simple, but calls for some real thought and provides a unique insight into the lives of the players.  After some careful consideration, here are my top three as well as some reflections on what makes the good years so good.

1991

1991 was the best of my high school years, with 1990 a close second.  In October 1990 I finally got up the nerve to ask Michelle to go out with me.  By 1991 we were “going steady.”  The summer of 1991 was my turn to attend Nazarene Youth Congress in Orlando, FL. By the time my senior semester started (fall 1991) I’d found my social niche and loved school. I was on my high school speech team and made the all-conference team in foreign extemp.  In December of 1991 I graduated from high school a semester early and prepared to head off to Olivet Nazarene University in January 1992.

Update: And though I didn’t know it then, that was also the year @Bekkalynn was born.

1995

This was probably the best year of my life so far.  So many things went right. 1994-1995 was my senior year of college and the best year for ONU basketball during my college years.  One of my best friends at school was a starting guard for the Tigers and Michelle and I had a lot of fun following the basketball team around during their CCAC championship season.  I spent half a semester in Lansing, MI doing my internship with Lansing South Church of the Nazarene.  In May I graduated. In June Michelle and I got married and honeymooned at Disney World.  We moved into our first “old apartment” together.  Then in November of 1995 I accepted my first ministerial position as the youth pastor at the Decatur Trinity Church of the Nazarene in Decatur, IL.  We went from our first apartment, to our first house, a parsonage two doors down the street from the church.  When I remember “the good old days” the events of 1995 are the first things to come to mind.

2003

On the first Sunday of October 2002 I became the youth pastor at my current church, the Middletown Church of the Nazarene.  During my first few months I focused on building the infrastructure for our youth ministry.  It wasn’t until January 2003 that we launched Water’s Edge our weekly worship service for teens.  (Honestly, I’m not certain if this photo was taken in 2003 or 2004).  As a family, the move to Middletown in many ways meant coming home.  I loved the people in Decatur, and I loved the city of Decatur, but we are Indiana folk.  Middletown meant more time with extended family, a house in the country that we own, and the advantages of being half an hour from all that Indianapolis has to offer.  In 2003 all this that we love so much was new and exciting.

What Makes the Best Years the Best?

In part it’s about perspective. After I got home from our ski trip I asked my wife what her top three years were.  Interestingly 2003, which I counted among the best, was one of her worst.  The transition away from the friendships in Decatur were far harder than she ever dreamed.  And she said one of her best was 2010, a year I would count among one of my worst (more on that tomorrow.)  How could two people living together, sharing so much of life, have such a different take on things?  We were focused on different factors.  Find yourself living your dream? Make sure those who matter most to you are enjoying the ride too.  Wake up every day to a nightmare? Maybe it’s time to intentionally take inventory of your blessings.

In part it’s about adventure. I can’t help but notice that all three of my favorite years were times of transition. I don’t make major moves all that often.  Let’s face it, 15 years of ministry and only two churches speaks to my tendency to stay put until God leads elsewhere. But as reluctant as I am to make major transitions, the adventure of them is energizing.  Matt Bond called this phenomenon “Entrepreneurial Energy” in his recent guest post on MoreThanDodgeball. Coming at the issue from the perspective of the movie The Social Network he wrote:

There’s a level of energy and enthusiasm inherent in discovery, risk-taking, and the forming of great ideas that you can’t help but get excited about. This in itself was obvious and inspirational in the movie. We saw a group of students portrayed as unsatisfied with existing structures and yearning for more purpose, connection, and significance. This kind of energy and enthusiasm is vital to our work with students and our teams. If you or your team is struggling with being excited about your current plan, existing structures, or roles, it may be necessary to try something new, shake things up, take a risk. Even if you fail in the short term, it may point you in the right direction.

There is something very wise in those words.

In part it’s about relationships. So many of my good memories don’t revolve around the things I had, the stuff I did or the positions I held.  They were about the people involved. I chose the photos for each year not so much for where they were taken or what was happening, but who was in them.  That’s an important thing to keep in mind when you’re thinking through priorities and making choices.  In the end, it’s the people that matter most.

The whole is cause for gratitude. James said it best when he wrote, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows (James 1:17, NIV).”  By my calculation that includes all those good years we’ve enjoyed.  When was the last time you said thanks?