The Real Story

I saw some Illinois friends at a Keller Williams conference in Austin earlier this week.  That was fun.  We all started something good and they are still at it.  I am forging ahead with a great opportunity as a result of the risk they took when they hired me.  With internet and cell phones and airplanes, we will keep in touch and even see one another again, without a doubt.

One of the younger of the crowd pulled me aside and, very seriously, asked me to tell him what “really happened” in Champaign to make Dave resign from pastoring.  I was glad to disappoint him by not having any juicy, “real” story.  The story hasn’t changed.  We were ready to go, we were free to go, and we went.  So simple that it must be complex. 

So here it is again.  Dave did not burn out and I did not burn out on ministry.  Dave did not have an affair nor did I  have an affair.  Neither of us is seriously ill.  We are not running away from debt or scandal or fears or relationships or responsibility or flat, corn-filled landscapes.  We simply were ready to move.  Now, we are in a new environment to continue growing into all God created us to be. 

I have no question about the wisdom of my move to Bucks County.  I have no secrets from my time alone here.  Dave is happy today in the mountains of Colorado, he just told me, but ready to leave there.  I don’t think he has any secrets, either.  And no question about his decision to spend the summer at Bear Basin Ranch.

So, the real story is that we are still, very simply, who we are–committed to sticking with our promises to God and to one another.  Committed to not assuming that the way things are is the way they will stay.  Committed to learning and laughing and leading while being sanctified.  That’s the real story, no lie.