Ch Ch Ch Ch Changes

Yes, I know he'll be back relatively frequently. He's already scheduled to preach in 6 weeks.

So, in some ways, this is much ado about nothing.

But my friend "D" is preaching today. It's his "last sermon" as an employee of Crossroads Bible Church. His office is packed and pretty much shipped. There's a reception in the early afternoon for him and his wife, Penny.

I totally get why he's leaving CBC. I mean, if you know him and know what excites him, then you know that his new job fits him and where he is at this stage of his life. So, on that end of things, I'm pretty excited. For him. For his family. For those of he will be ministering to.

And Tuesday he'll be off on his new adventure.

But 12 years of life together and working together...

...countless staff meetings (in the early days, especially) that devolved into that kind of laughter that you try to supress because you're allegedly grown ups but can't stop because whatever silly thing that was just said really was funny.
...getting to watch him teach God's word in settings from children to students to our church's doctrinal foundations to sermons and realizing that you were watching somebody who's really great at what they do do what they do.
...office pranks that actually became traditions, including, but not limited to, the Festivus Cherub.
...red-meat nights for staff on his back porch.
...getting creative to find solutions with him when our old building just wouldn't hold what our congregation needed and working with him to solve the best of all possible church problems for our children, for our students, and for our adults.
...taking lunch trips to check out construction on the new building about once a week.
...secretary races around the upstairs hall. Let's just say that Nancy and Sherry are really good sports and they didn't even wear crash helmets or pads. Of course, they didn't have much say in the matter, either.
...watching his steady demeanor through the worst of all possible church problems was encouraging on those days when you felt you were coming unglued.
...listening to your daughters say "...and Pastor D and Miss Penny" for nearly 10 years praying before bedtime.
...designing and implementing our church's Family Camp (the best-kept secret we've got, IMHO) with him, and watching how cool it was from idea to inception.
...watching that couple parent, knowing they were about 6 years ahead of us on a very similar path, gave us encouragement that teens don't have to go nuts and watching the way they handled the unique demands of having PK's kept Tracy and I from too many potential potholes to count.
...watching so many lives influenced in so many ways.

I could go on.

And, yes, like I said earlier...the two of them will still be around with some degree of frequency.

But, in my mind, today's sermon on John 21 means a little more than the usual. And the usual means a lot when he's up there teaching.

Baseball players on opposing teams will often tip their cap when they see excellence from guys on other teams. These things are usually the subtle things that only players on the inside know about. It's a respect thing. An admiration thing. Even though their friends might be on new teams or whatever, there is an unwritten code that the game well-played deserves respect, and that respect should be shown even if the excellence is not on your team. The game's the thing.

Today, I'm symbolically tipping my hat to D.

The game's the thing.

And he plays it with excellence in the big and little things.

*makes eye contact*
*lifts bill of cap in such a way as the back part of the cap comes ever-so-slightly off the back of my head*
*nods in respect*
*puts cap back on*
*goes back to work without further hoopla, because the moment's over and the game's still the thing and there are more innings to be played*

Godspeed, my friends.

Godspeed.