At the
end of this month, you'll be able to find me and El Chupacabra in the land of
bridges and bicycles - the lovely yet gloomy hipster paradise of Portland, Oregon.
We'll be easy to spot, as I own absolutely no vintage clothing (unless you call
underwear so old it has lost its elasticity “vintage”) and because El
Chupacabra's glasses are real and completely necessary. So, if you're in the
great Pacific Northwest on April 30th, keep your eyes peeled for two dorks in baggy
panties, clothes from Target, and functional eye glasses. It will be us. I promise.
We'll be there to attend Donald Miller's
Storyline 2012 conference, and we're pretty excited about it. The
conference website describes it like this:
WHY, you
ask, are two people who have obviously taken some pretty extraordinary steps
toward living life to its fullest going to a conference about learning to live
well?
Um...
That's a really good question.
Here's
the answer:
We've
found ourselves at a bit of a crossroads - Over the next few months we'll be
facing some major life changes that we'd like to step into with a sense of
direction. Our work/ministry dynamic will be changing. Our family dynamic will
be changing. And our home base might be changing.
We want
to spend April 30th and May 1st at the Storyline
conference, examining these forthcoming changes. We're hoping to use our time
there to prayerfully and willfully narrow the focus on our wildest passions and
truest gifts. We want to explore our future, as our oldest son is moving out,
and soon we'll begin daily life as a family of four. (Ugh. When I typed that, I think my heart opened up and leaked out
something important. I'll never be the same.) And we want to continue to
seek God regarding our future as missionaries.
Truly, I
live an interesting life. Moving to a foreign country
seems like an obvious choice if an “interesting” life is what you're aiming
for. But I don't want to settle for an interesting
life when I could upgrade to a meaningful
life; A life that has depth, and impact; A life that serves, blesses, and
equips others on their own paths. That is the life I want to live.
I want to live an unforgettable, honest,
meaningful story - one clearly defined by Faith, Hope, and Love, and book-ended by Grace and Redemption.
It's just
time for some self-evaluation, to be sure that's where we're headed, ya know? For that reason, I
think the Storyline conference will be helpful to us. We're excited about it.
Oh. And you
should totally come! Then we could hang out. A fun time would surely be had. Then sometime, way down the line, when we're old and wrinkled and looking
back on our amazing stories, we could talk about the time our paths crossed in
Portland and you knew it was me by my stretched out underpants, and I knew it
was you by your...
....Wait. How will I recognize you?!
