Epiphany...(Oh yeah, Merry Chritsmas and a Happy New Year)!!

I was just struck by the thought that it was just a year ago when the whole ITI thing began. I'll never forget sitting listening to Father Tim's homily as he talked about following the star wherever it might lead us. A year and 10 days ago and I would have laughed at you if you would have suggested I would be in Austria the following year. God certainly leads us on a "Great Adventure" This is a name of an old Steven Curtis Chapman song of the same name. The lyrics are fantastic:

Saddle Up Your Horses
by Stephen Curtis Chapman

Started out this morning in the usual way
Chasing thoughts inside my head of all I had to do today
Another time around the circle try to make it better than the last

I opened up the Bible and I read about me
Said I'd been a prisoner and God's grace had set me free
And somewhere between the pages it hit me like a lightning bolt
I saw a big frontier in front of me and I heard somebody say "let's go"!

CHORUS
Saddle up your horses we've got a trail to blaze
Through the wild blue yonder of God's amazing grace
Let's follow our leader into the glorious unknown
This is a life like no other - this is The Great Adventure

Come on get ready for the ride of your life
Gonna leave long faced religion in a cloud of dust behind
And discover all the new horizons just waiting to be explored
This is what we were created for

(Chorus)

BRIDGE
We'll travel over, over mountains so high
We'll go through valleys below
Still through it all we'll find that
This is the greatest journey that the human heart will ever see
The love of God will take us far beyond our wildest dreams

There is no doubt that following the Lord is a great adventure!! Sometimes it is rocky and other times it seems so mundane. hoever, it is precisely here we are invited to see by the eyes of our faith the adventure of loving God and others in the very midst of the humdrum. Trying to love others perfectly truly is an adventure!