With Shane, delayed at LAX

This picture with Shane was taken before we found out we would have a 4 hour delay. Otherwise we wouldn't be smiling. This puts us in at 8 pm to Tokyo. This means we have a longer day than the normally impossibly long day you usually have.
Taking a picture with 2 guys is hard. You don't know if you should stand apart, or together. Too "together" feels weird. Totally apart and direct toward the camera lke you don't know each other is also a non starter. We split the difference, with me turning and leaning on the counter ever so nonchalantly with Shane wondering how I convinced him to do this. Now we just will start to look for a good place to eat.

As we head to Tokyo, I want to share a few thoughts from last week I had about CM2007. I wrote this to several of those in leadership of this event. It seemed to strike a chord. It was what God was doing in my heart in reference to all the load of details we are swarmed with right now, as is typical for something this big, I think. Here you go:

In 10 years, no one will be talking about how the handbooks looked, or if there were enough banners hanging, or if the plenary program was smooth, or if we sang all the right songs. These will be faded footnotes if they are even remembered. I know this, because 30 years ago my life was radically changed at a mission’s conference and I can’t remember any of this. What will be the things which last for eternity?

-20,000 students will experience the presence of God in a global community, a momentary glimmer of the eternal banquet celebration. We could stop right there and call it “success”.
-Thousands of students will have surrendered their lives to Christ, and dedicated themselves to reaching the unevangelized students of the world.
-Another slice of God’s missionary force that will impact the next 30-40 years of global history will have taken up the baton for their part of the race.
-Students who will be in our place 10-20-30 years from now will be given visions and dreams for the glory of God and His church.
-The gospel will be carried around the globe in ever increasing circles of impact. -Fireseeds of spiritual awakening will be ignited and scattered everywhere.

In just 45 days this will happen, barring a national or global emergency of some sort, which we should pray against. I believe the eternal repercussions of this conference may alone account for a good portion of internal stress each of us feel. We need to pray that Satan would not thwart this conference on either the global scale or a personal one.

While the stakes are high, it is not us who will accomplish these things. Our buses may be disorganized, the program will not be perfect, we will all have a list of 100 things we wish we could have done differently. Others who have not seen the complexity of this event may well give us their “helpful thoughts” on what could have been done differently. I can say pretty confidently that in 50 days, none of that will matter. The eternal will far outweigh the temporal. Let us keep our eyes on the eternal, and not the temporal.

Time to look for food.