Saying goodbye

This weekend I got the opportunity to have breakfast with a group of guys that I had a bonding experience with a few years ago. Ever since then we have made it a goal to get together once a month and do breakfast to keep up with one another. Sometimes we did do it every month, sometimes it would be months in between breakfasts. This group of guys, me included, texted one another quite often with prayer requests for one another and even praises for personal victories in our lives. This relationship has gone on for about two years now. One of the members of our group recently joined the military! Joined on full time, he is going to be an American Soldier (a very admirable profession in my opinion.) This means though that our friend is picking up his life here in Goshen Indiana and moving to wherever the military tells him for at least the next 5 years, if not for the rest of his career.

So this Saturday we got to meet one last time for breakfast and to say goodbye to and pray with our friend. It was great to get to sit together one last time and talk about life. It was also great to get to listen to him be excited about this new chapter of his life that he is just beginning. We got to pray for him and send him off covered in God's word! As we stood outside of I-Hop and said our good byes it hit me that this could be the last time I ever see my friend face to face. Who knows where his journeys and travels will take him over the next few years. He could end up on the other side of the nation, or even based on the other side of the world. Then I even began to think, "what if this is the last time that I ever get to talk to him?" As life moves us in different directions it's hard to know for sure where we are going to land, where God is going to have us end up. I have spent a lot of time over the last couple years praying for and with this friend as we went through life together. I know that he has spent a lot of time praying for me and my family as well and for that I am eternally grateful for his friendship. I will do my best to keep in touch with him when he has the ability to communicate, but who knows where God will take him over the next few years or even decade. What I do know is that I will always keep him and his wife and children in my prayers and that bonding moment that he and I and two other guys shared a couple years ago will always mean a lot to me. I don't know if he'll get a chance to read this post and to be honest it doesn't really matter, but just in case... I will continue to pray for you and your family while you are gone. I will continue to stand in the gap and lift you up whether we get to talk to one another or not. I'll continue to pray for your safety as you bravely defend this country of ours. Thanks for being a prayer warrior for me, Anna and the boys over the last two years when I needed it. Good luck and God bless you brother!