Tears and Tears Go Hand in Hand

What's the worst sensation you can think of?

Got it?

Okay, imagine that times fifty. That's what separation is like. I hate it. Separation is a form of death that removes someone from reach, from association, communion, and communication. It may not be permanent, but how many times have you said good-bye to someone thinking that it was for a little while, maybe a month at most, maybe only a day... Never to see them again? I didn't think anything of it, the last time I saw Micah. But not too many days later, those last moments meant the world to me.

All this to say, I've done the whole life together, kingdom community thing. And the thing is, it's wonderful. Donald Miller and various other authors have said in one way or another that one of our deepest desires is "to be known and loved anyway." When you live and learn in close quarters, you get naked emotionally, spiritually, etc. in ways that are not even an option in most relationships, and it's a great feeling. Imagine skinny dipping. I've never done it, so I'm imagining with you, but I think of the delicious sense of risk, that spicy edge that makes the air tingle as it enters your lungs mixed with the tang of freedom stolen for a few moments. Do you dare? To be so exposed is to take a chance.

"But the nautical like all things fades..." and eventually everyone says good-bye. Sometimes it's forever. Literally. Who do you know who is not a Christian? When you bid them adieu, know that there is always the possibility that you will never ever see that person again in this life or the next. Suddenly every last second counts. Sometimes it's only for a day, a week, a month, a year, and then sweet reunion. But it's only a postponement of the inevitable longer separation.

To those of you who have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior: I am glad that He saved you. Someday I will shed no more tears over the space between us. To those of you who have not: I beg you to reconsider the decision you've made. I don't want to know that there will come a good-bye that will not be eventually followed by a hello, for that is a pain that knows no remedy.