Sat, Feb 23
... A legacy continues
Matt, Laura, and I went to Denny's last night, and we were talking about the people we most want to meet first when we get to heaven. Matt was talking about wanting to meet Joshua, and we were talking about how he took over the leadership from Moses; how he had such big shoes to fill...
Anyways, that lead to a little bit of talk about Norm and Craig, and how Craig's having to fill Norm's shoes, and how it's a big job for him, and how we sometimes feel like he's not doing as good a job as he could be, or as we think he should be.
Tonight, I was driving home, and for some reason, I got this mental picture of all these older Israelites sitting around talking about "the good old days" with Moses.
"Oh, I don't like the way Joshua does this. With Moses, we had much better community-building events, and I felt like I was much closer to God than I am now."
"Yeah, I know how you feel. I mean, we don't even get together as a big group anymore. With Moses, we used to do that once a month! I mean, those games like Terminal Velocity, where we'd huck day-old chunks of manna at each other? Those were the days!"
"And remember how we used to always go sit in that one tent and talk? It's just not the same now that we don't do that anymore."
"The leadership is just too immature now. They don't have any respect, and they're not serious enough. Joshua just doesn't seem to understand that this nation is going down the toilet, and he's not fixing it the way we think he could be!"
"I miss Moses. We just need him back, just for a little while, to straighten everything out again, and go back to the 'good old days.'"
"Marching around walls? What kind of crazy ideas does this young guy have now? This is just crazy. We should still be doing things the old ways."
And we read the Bible story now, and we see Joshua as an incredible and godly man, who lead the people of Israel in great victories. I wonder what they thought of him at first, though. And I wonder what Craig's legacy on Foothills will be. I wonder what kind of impact he'll leave; I wonder how he'll be missed when he leaves; I wonder how the church will be different because he gave God his life and let himself be lead here. I wonder if, when he's gone, some of the then-older members of the youth group will sit around comparing him to the new guy, and talking about how things were so much better with Craig.
We're so resistant to change. And yes, I can say all I want that things were better with Norm. I liked Norm better, I was more spiritually fed, more challenged, more motivated. But Norm's not my youth pastor anymore; Craig is, and I have to respect his leadership, support him, and pray for him now.
I just wonder if, in ten years, it'll seem silly that we were so concerned about Craig's spiritual maturity and the way he leads.
infinite || abyss
posted at 12:56 a.m.
