there and back again...again 2.0

this is a re-post of an entry i wrote way back when i was in seminary, returning to school after spending spring break back home in seattle. i've been thinking a lot about changes in life lately. perhaps it's because we're going through the holidays, a time rich in family/community traditions, and how what we once did as a (extended)family no longer takes place. i'm also feeling how christmas has become a lot more busier for me as a pastor and things get dropped by the waste side.

and change is inevitable. we're living life half-way across the country and in a vocation that leaves an indelible mark not only on the pastor but also on the family. we're changing. life back in seattle has changed. sure we communicate back home over the phone and over skype, but it's not the same as being there, living life together. so yes, the world is changed...and i feel it...

originally posted on 4/5/2005

there is a scene at the end of the return of the king where the four hobbits have returned to the shire and are sitting down to enjoy a half-pint of ale with each other. as they sit, they share a 'knowing' look at each other. now in that look there is a sense that they were home, yet there was something different. those four went on a fantastic journey through middle earth with tales upon tales to be told, yet life went on as usual in the shire, and no one could care less. in many ways, they end up being almost like visitors in a familiar place. only they knew what they all went through, and in some ways, although they would probably share with other hobbits their adventures, the others would not fully understand what they experienced. for frodo, what he went through with the ring was so much that he left with the gandalf and the elves to the west.

thinking back to our trip home for spring break, i got the sense that things are changing. life goes on back in seattle. amazingly, things don't stop when we cross the city limits! people change. they live a whole new set of experiences separate from those experiences we have. though i am not carrying the ring of power, seminary has done a lot, even in the past month, to shape me, change my outlook and change who i am. now i am not saying that i don't feel welcomed or that i'm never going to come home. seattle will always be home to me. but when i do go home, how do i explain how God has shaped me in the few months that i've been gone? if i did go into it, could they understand fully what i've been through? would people even care? perhaps there will be a day when i'll sit down with denise at a starbucks in seattle with a mug of...umm...tea (denise likes tea) and share a knowing glance, understanding how our adventures in mordor, i mean los angeles, have changed us...

The world is changed: I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth, I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it.