Changing Weather

As I sat and tried to get well from this bug yesterday I had a chance to observe the weather a bit. I would look out and we would have huge snow flakes, it was like being in the middle of a snow globe. Then before I realized it the sun would be shining in through the window. Then the snow would slowly start again and within thirty minutes we would have cycled through the weather pattern again. It was rather awesome and I began to realize that the weather is always changing and we rarely notice. We just live life day to day and another year has goes by. It is when we are in crisis, a storm growing in our lives that we notice the the changes that have been going on in our lives.
It seems like it was just yesterday that I was in high school and here I am all grown up with grown children. What happened to the last thirty years?
I realize now I was so busy living life, I let it slip by me without even noticing. That would be a regret I have, not slowing down to see the weather changing. Why is it that the to do list always seems so important but being present in the life of family, and I mean in the small things gets left behind.
The weather continues to change by the hour today, not as drastic as yesterday but I am noticing. I have decided to make a point of slowing down and and be present to my life, to changes everyday. I want to watch my children find their wings and fly into their lives. I want to be their for my wife as we journey into new adventures. I will be present to life and to change.

I thought I would give this a go.

I have been sitting around all day for the past three days due to the bug that I am fighting, and sitting here I decided that I would give this a go. So first why the title? I am a third culture kid, which is a person who spent at least one year or more growing up outside your home country. I grew up in five countries and just before my eighteenth birthday moved to my home country, the United States of America to begin my college life. I added pastor to the title because I have often wondered why I ended up working in the church. One idea I came up with is that faith in my family was the one constant in my life. So it has seemed natural that I have become a pastor to have an anchor, which is my faith in my life.
Now that I have lived in the same place for eleven years, the longest I have lived anywhere, I am losing my itchy feet. At the same time my faith is growing deeper. I always enjoyed the thrill of moving to a new place, it was a new adventure for me, I am surprised at what a comfort it is to have some roots planted. The reality is as a pastor my roots are in the church and when I retire I will have to separate myself do to the ethical guidelines of no longer being their pastor. Somewhere in my mind there is the reality that I will not be here forever and there is some grief with that. For now I will focus on the adventure of traveling with the same community and growing in my faith.
What I plan to do is to journey with this blog with my thoughts and musings that will range the gamete of issues. I invite anyone to follow and even dialogue with me if one finds a topic that triggers your thinking. I look forward to the day and weeks ahead.