SOUL CrossTraining

Life offers an amazing assortment of moments filled with potential beyond our comprehension. I think way too often we only see a small portion of what is at stake. Here's what I mean. As I make time to share a meal with my family do I realize the potential of what could transpire as we eat together? Could it be as we share our BEST and WORST of the day, we get to see a glimpse of a dream God has planted deep inside one of us as we share? Could it be that we are invited in to see place of vulnerability in each other? Or maybe it is simply in the shared laughter we find perspective and strength. You see in those ordinary moments the potential for the extraordinary is always present. The question is... will we see it and will we seize it. Will we do our very best to take hold of it?

Katie, a young friend of mine, wrote these three words on a ceramic plate she designed... Love without Fear I wonder about the combination of these three words . I wonder about the power of loving and living this way. Our longing to experience this type of love, this way of life is planted deep within our souls. Although we will never fully experience it on earth -- we sometimes within some relationships, catch a glimpse of the power and beauty of this way of loving. And for a moment see and experience the depth of God's love for us. I think I caught a glimpse early this year as I spent a few days at the beach celebrating a dear friend's 45th birthday. She gathered a handful of friends to celebrate the gift of life and the power of love. It looked a little like this: Conversations flowing with ease Laughter, free and spontaneous Joy expressed around a dining room table Gratitude for the gift of girlfriends All these moments combined conveyed a bit of God's love and ...

Well, today is the day. I am digging into the hallway closet. The one that gathers all the things that we don't want to carry upstairs to our bedrooms or downstairs to the basement. Those things that we are not quite sure can be thrown away. Those things that we just can't quite let go of. As I sorted through the contents, I found evidence of our life. Pictures I had be given by my mother of family members from earlier decades. Mementos of my childhood. I found more recent items from our summer outings watching Calvin, our oldest son, as he pitched in a summer collegiate baseball league. I found hats and gloves we had rushed to put on to play in the snow a few weeks ago. All of these items reminded me of snapshots of our combined life as the Gunter family. I also found a bag full items that needed to be thrown away as well as things that we've outgrown. As I sorted through the contents, I was able to gather the cookbooks that had accumulated in the kitchen back on the shelf...