This morning I am writing in a lodge overlooking a large quiet lake about an hour northeast of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Jim Lockwood is the director here. Tom Shaw is the director of operations. Micah Steiner is the director of ministries. Joel Schmuland is the program director.
Forty-eight years ago I spent a week here as an eight-year-old camper, now I have been invited back to speak. At Lincoln Lake the cabins are clustered together along a hillside overlooking the lake in a grove of towering white pines. Today the breeze is coming off the lake, the sky is blue, and the humidity and temperature are perfect. When the summer sky is clear and the humidity is low the water is a deep shade of blue that has a calming effect on my spirit.
I just walked outside and Joel gestured overhead. A huge bald eagle was soaring high overhead. He drifted out over the lake and plunged down to the water after his prey. The Loons are calling right now and have been most of the week.
Tomorrow night I will drive away. On my way home the sun will set and the moon will rise full. My heart will be full, too, with the memory of two strait weeks of ministry to young people. God has given me the desire of my heart to preach. In a kind providence He has assigned me to this beautiful peninsula called Michigan.
Sunday I will be back in the Evangel Pulpit and resume my duties as a pastor to the flock God has entrusted to my care. I’ll sleep in my own bed, eat familiar food, and be reunited with Lois. I’ll not forget the color of the water, the sound of the Loons, the fragrance of a wood fire, or the quiet that settles over the chapel at night when we descend into what I call “the storyteller’s moment” and we entrust to yet another generation the story that has changed all our lives.
