This is my very good friend Kevin Rains. Today he wrote a little piece on his blog remembering some connections some of us made several years ago. It was a little bitter-sweet for me to read. As he said, two of our comrades have since moved on to a fuller expression of God's Kingdom. Also, the connection we all had after that day, growing for a few years, seems to have faded a bit. That's not necessarily bad. God has moved some of us here and there, shifted our focus, etc. It still feels like something I'm personally lacking though - sometimes. That's a little sad for me.
When I was at the event Kevin describes in his post (it began the night of July 25, 2001), I kept a very constant written journal. I recorded my thoughts as that weekend progressed. In 2005 I posted my own memorial post about the same event. The poem you see at the end there was one I wrote after a bunch of us went to a local bar/music club there in Cincinnati one night. I actually have pictures of that time somewhere, probably on a roll of film that never got developed. I'll try to track those down.
"Then, if we cannot as yet think alike in all things, at least we may love alike. Herein we cannot possibly do amiss." John Wesley
"Keep your eyes on the crucifix, for Jesus without the cross
is a man without a mission, and the cross without Jesus
is a burden without a reliever." Fulton J. Sheen
"...I am deeply convinced that the Christian leader of the future is called to be
completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self." Henri Nouwen
This is my very good friend Kevin Rains. Today he wrote a little piece on his blog remembering some connections some of us made several years ago. It was a little bitter-sweet for me to read. As he said, two of our comrades have since moved on to a fuller expression of God's Kingdom. Also, the connection we all had after that day, growing for a few years, seems to have faded a bit. That's not necessarily bad. God has moved some of us here and there, shifted our focus, etc. It still feels like something I'm personally lacking though - sometimes. That's a little sad for me.
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