light

Have you ever had a moment when you think back in time and realize how certain people remind you of a certain period of your life?  Then you feel like you can remember every single part of it like it was yesterday.  Yesterday, I found out that one of my favorite kids passed away.  His name was Ford.  Ford was one of the first kids I ever met when I became a Young Life/Wyld Life leader.  He was best friends with Mac and they were pretty much a package deal.  They pretty much adopted me:)  They don't know this, but they were also one of the reasons I LOVED being a Young Life leader.  If you know the two of them, then you know exactly what I am talking about.  Mischief, craziness and adventure were always linked to them and you were damn lucky if you got to be a part of it.  I kept thinking about how Mac and Ford used to call me Mother Goose... When I think of the two of them, I think of Meriwether and all of the fun that our little posse had.  I kept thinking of all of our trips to Windy Gap and the hilarious car/bus rides.  I loved going over to the McAdams house because I always knew the two of them would be up for anything.  Especially if it was fishing or food related:)  Yesterday, I was thinking about Ford and YL and I just realized how lucky I was to get to spend time with them.  How lucky I was to get to be a Young Life leader.  It was so special.  I realized how lucky we all are to get to have relationships and play a part in people's lives.  There are obviously no words that make any of this better or easier, but I keep going back to my prayer of the past few months. That God is in this.  And that somehow we would know this deep down.  In the midst of all of this hard stuff I also realized that God has put us here to love people and that we should love as hard and as best as we can.  After the last few days and definitely the last few months I've realized that it is very hard, but its what I want to do.  Love is the greatest gift we can give people and it is what we are called to do.  I am so thankful that I got to know and love Ford.  Love you bud.

 

(Ford as a Russian figure skater..)

Today I keep reading this verse over and over and it keeps giving hope.