A Farewell to My Beeson Family

Last night we celebrated the end of our Beeson experience at a very nice closing banquet. I've wrestled with how to say "good-bye" to these people. Here's what I came up with...


TIME'S UP!
(a bad poem written with good intentions)

Eleven months... TIME'S UP!

Time to go back into the real world.
Time to wrestle with budgets.
Time to massage egos.
Time to lead with an eye on the prize
and another on the grim faces of those
wondering if we know what we're doing.

Time to move to Oklahoma and Ohio.
Time to move to Texas and Tennessee.
Time to move to Alabama and Georgia.
Time to stay in Kentucky
and teach others that "servant leadership"
means taking the initiative to serve others.

Time to work in the attractional church.
Time to preach to moderns and post-moderns.
Time to do what's been done.
Time to wonder what is coming next
as the Holy Spirit continually renews
the hearts of God's children.

Time to leave the townhouses.
Time to leave the waterpark behind building #208.
Time to leave train whistles at 4am.
Time to leave one another's children
whose lives we have mutually invested in
and whose smiles we will miss.

Time to plant new churches.
Time to renew old churches.
Time to return home to our churches.
Time to faithfully lead from vision
while wearing our heart for our people
and our Savior on our sleeves.

Time to offer them the Gospel.
Time to add conditioner to tangled lives.
Time to call people to commitment.
Time to remember that a hand
that offers a Bible
better be coupled by another hand with a bowl of soup.

Time to laugh and cry
Time to uproot and be rooted
Time to this moment to die and the next to live
Time to remember these words of wisdom:
"Fear God and obey his commands
for this is the duty of every person."

Time to talk about graduations.
Time to talk about reunions.
Time to look forward to children grown.
Time to think about occasional phone calls,
emails, letters, visits, and questions that begin with
"Have you heard from...."

Time in this life is a cruel master.
Time will not relent, or forgive.
Time always demands more from us
Time will forget you,
but I never will.

TIME'S UP!
I hope you make it where you're going,
and you know how much you've blessed me along the way
now and for all time.