Note: On Tuesdays and some Sundays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
I needed to make a change. The situation had provided joy and support off and on for years, but the time had come to change. And, as you know, change, even for the right reasons, is difficult. I prayed on it. I discussed it in vague terms with a close 
friend. But I dallied, looking for a sign, halfway hoping it wouldn’t come.
Then in the early spring, a cousin whom I hadn’t heard from for years other than Christmas cards started a daily email exchange with me. We wrote about family memories, illnesses, rock and roll… and faith. It didn’t take long for her notes to be a big part of my daily formation.
About six weeks later, I was leaving a retreat when a fellow retreatant, who knew nothing of all this, said the Lord had a message for me: He desired that I move to a higher slope. I thought a lot about that on the long ride home. I made the change, hard as it was, starting the next day. That was nearly four months ago, and with God’s grace, I’m still on track, bolstered by time with my confessor.
Since that time, I’ve emailed just twice with the fellow retreatant. As for my cousin—she died in July.
I tell you all this not to get a bunch of “atta-girl” responses or to hold myself up as some poster child of virtue. I tell you this because, as Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5, to “encourage one another and build one another up” is a big part of living with and seeing Christ in this world and preparing for the next. Often, our most important ministries are to those we love and see every day. But every once in a while, that love and support and building up comes from complete strangers or from people we seldom see. May we recognize His goodness in all of them—and reflect it where we’re called to.
