Milestones

This past week, Thaddeus and I drove to Southern California to celebrate our nephew's graduation from high school.  It is a six hour drive on a very boring stretch of highway on I-5.  There really isn't much to see, so we were glad our rental car had XM Satellite radio.  We listened to baseball all the way down and back.  About the only thing to do on this drive is to gauge when you will need to stop to fill up with gas, eat or use the bathroom.  In our case, we only made one stop and completed all those necessary steps.  We had our handy AAA trip-tik, which I have been using since we first went to SoCal back in 2001.  A Trip-Tik is like a map, but smaller with flip pages and listings of places to stop.  Over the years, I have written down the mile markers of our favorite places to stop, so we can better judge time and distance.  Our one stop was at Kettleman City on the way down and I was able to tell Thaddeus an hour before we stopped the precise time we would stop.  Knowing the mile markers and seeing the road signs always helps us make the trip easier.

Our life journey is also filled with milestones - Important points in our lives.   This coming Sunday, we will celebrate two of those milestones as we celebrate Tony Birrittier's graduation from high school and Jewel Emerson receiving her Associates degree.  These are markers in their lives to remind them that they have accomplished a feat which will prepare them for the next part of their journey.  Our lives are filled with memorable milestones - Graduations, our wedding, the birth of our children, beginning a new job, retiring from our job,seeing our kids graduate.  There is an ebb and flow to these milestones which remind us that our time on earth may be nearing an end.  We graduate from high school and before we know it, our children are graduating from high school.  Then we retire from our work and before we know it, the people we love begin to die.  Life seems to pass in the blink of an eye.  We look back at pictures from our younger days and wonder where the time went.  We see our grandchildren and think that it was only yesterday when our children were that age.  This is God's reminder that we were not made for this earth but for eternity.

I have found that there are other milestones which can mark our life journey in more profound ways:  The day we gave our life to Jesus, the day we were baptized, the first Sunday School class we every taught, the first mission trip we ever went on, the first time we ever witnessed, the first time we ever led someone to Christ and other events.  However, most of our milestones of faith are not so noticeable.  We may teach the same Sunday School class for many years and there is never any "milestone" event.  However, the lives we invested in have grown in faith and are touching others.  Reflect on all of the little events which have made you the man/woman of faith you are now.  Think about the people God has brought into you life who have draw you closer to your Savior.  Many of those were just for a season, but the impact they had is still felt in your life to this day.

Many of the milestones in our lives come in the form of pain and tragedy.  They are marked by deep heart ache caused by divorce, death, illness, injury or loss.  When we are in the midst of those milestones, they are gut wrenching and the pain is almost unbearable.  We wonder if God has abandoned us or if He even cares at all.  There are times when we cry out to Him and times when we yell at Him.  There are times when we seek His comfort and times when we vent our anger in His direction.  Some of these milestones are self-inflicted by the bad choices we have made and some come about for no apparent reason at all.  Many people want to forget these milestones or look at them as dark periods which they would rather have not had happen.  Yet, it is in these milestone events when God's presence can be the more real, powerful and comforting.  We sit in a jail cell and cry out to God - He hears our confession, sends his comfort and gives us the strength to never fall back into that temptation again.  So what once became the dumbest decision we ever made, now become a turning point from which we will be stronger in our faith and more connected to others.  We sit by a graveside and weep at the tragic loss of someone close to us.  We feel alone and deserted.  God doesn't wait for us to cry out, but sends His presence to comfort us like a blanket on a chilly evening.  He sends people at just the right time when we are the most lonely and depressed.  He sends opportunities to give to others which keeps us from becoming too self-consumed.  These milestones may be the most painful, but they are the ones we are more likely to share.  I believe that God never wastes a pain, but allows us to comfort others as He has comforted us.

Are you involved in your church so you can share your milestones and join in the milestones of others?  Not do you attend, but are you involved?  Do you participate regularly or is attendance your only goal?  Do others in the church know the painful milestones to they can share with you?  Do you listen to the milestones of others?  We have to be proactive if our milestones are going to make a difference in anyone's life.  We have to make the effort to get involved and build friendships.  I'm looking forward to celebrating these milestones on Sunday because I get to walk through one more part of the journey with some friends.  Why don't you join us on Sunday to celebrate what God is doing in the lives of those around you?