Presence

Today at work we said goodbye to a great man named Joshua. God is taking him to be the chaplain at the prison in Walla Walla... one of those things where we are all sad to see him go, but excited to see him thrive in this new place that God is so apparently directing him to. We set aside about an hour to share with Joshua how he'd blessed us, and who he was to us, and why we love him... it was very powerful.

One woman said, "My pastor uses a golf metaphor all the time that captures you so well, Joshua. It's about golf, and hitting the ball where it lies." And she talked about how Joshua had to deal with lots of difficult situations, but he never was one to kick the ball with his foot to a more desirable location from where he could more easily hit it, nor would he complain and wish his ball was somewhere else. Instead, he simply sized the situation up and took his best swing right exactly where the ball was, no matter how icky and mucky. Even when circumstances were less than ideal, he stared it in the face and made the most of that. I respect Joshua for that....