Promised myself I wouldn't waste one precious moment of this gift of time to spend as I wish. Sure wasn't expecting my portion for this day to come so early. I took a long morning drive around this city that I have spent my entire life in. It's beautiful to watch a community come alive as dawn breaks.
I enjoyed a unique form of prayer, worship and thanksgiving as each street revealed a memory, an experience, an encounter from the past. Looking over the bay with the sun rising over Presque Isle, I thought of my dad and our countless hours in the boat, rounding the park, I thought of the day I saw Annie there. I had just met her. 16 years old, beautiful and full of life. I thought of all the trouble I got in growing up on the lower east side and grateful I escaped a life far from God. Sat in front of the Boston Store, Erie's heritage downtown meeting place for teenagers in the 60's and 70's. Thought of the times I preached in front of it when I found Christ hoping to introduce others to His magnificence. Funny, I always dreamed of the day I would leave here but that day never came. Now, I can't imagine being anywhere else.
Driving toward home, Brent Bourgeois's song Total Surrender absolutely broke me. I haven't wept like that in a very long time. It was good. It was cleansing. It was so needed. I felt like I had "kissed the Son" as Psalm two encourages. God so knew I needed this time and the fact He jumped right in with me this morning in such a meaningful way broke my heart the way it's supposed to be broken.
