Forever Friends

40 years ago my mom was pregnant along with her friend Diane. The two baby girls were born 10 days apart. They played in the church nursery together. They took ice skating lessons together. They went to school together. They played the flute together. Play dates, Halloween costumes, slumber parties, graduation day. How many of us are lucky enough to have that friend who knows you forever?  They know the entire journey and what makes you who you are.

My friend now lives in Lima, Peru. Over a year ago I had just found out we were moving here to Bogota. We hit a weekend where we were both back home visiting our families. I said to her “I want to spend our 40^th birthdays together.” I had no idea how this would ever be possible. The thought lingered in the back of my mind for over a year. I never really pursued it beyond a wish. I didn't look at the calendar, I didn't look at plane ticket prices.

One day my husband called me from work. He had been working on buying tickets for us to go to Buenes Aires for a conference which happened to fall over my birthday. He was a bit frustrated. He was trying to find direct flights home for us. It wasn't working for the dates we had chosen. Off hand I asked “Where's the layover?” “Lima”, he replied. Silence. Hmmmmm. “Can I stay in Lima a few days and visit Cheryl?”

After 10 days in Argentina, I walked through customs and saw my friend waving at me with a big smile on her face. Lima, Peru. Somehow as little girls playing together or giggling teenagers I never dreamed we would be celebrating our 40^th birthdays – together, in Peru.

Cheryl and her family gave me a wonderful tour of Lima. We explored churches, wandered markets, tasted foods. But greater than the experience of seeing another city was the time we spent in her home. Cooking, washing dishes, playing in the park with her kids. Sharing, laughing, loving.

In His Steps

In His Steps

By Charles M. Sheldon

I remember when the phrase “WWJD” became very popular in the 1990's. I saw so many young people sporting the colored rubber bracelets. I heard radio announcers end every conversation by asking “What would Jesus do?”. It was clearly the catch-phrase of the day. The situations it was used for were typically moral responses to various dilemmas. How could we best discern how to live our daily lives as God would ask us to? Quiet frankly I got tired of the phrase rather quickly because I never saw any change in the behavior of the Christian community. I had no idea the phrase had much deeper roots than the pop-culture of the '90's.

Before vacation I scoured the books I had brought looking for a good read. This past spring my parents cleaned off their shelves sending me off with lots of reading material. I choose yellow paged book called “In His Steps”. First published in 1897, Charles Sheldon wrote this book to be read aloud to his congregation. A former social worker who disguised himself as an unemployed printer, he tramped around the streets of Topeka, KA. He was shocked at the indifference to society the Christian community had.

The book follows the story of a pastor who through a circumstance confronts his congregation and challenges them to devote one year of their lives to asking the question “What would Jesus do?” before making any sort of daily decisions. Following a set of characters the book examines the changes made in individual lives, the church, the city and ultimately the nation. Although the focus of the book is to examine how we treat the poor among us, many characters had to make decisions in their lives based purely on right and wrong. Often the decisions went against the social norm and consequences were felt in their lives.

Not ever having heard of this book prior to plucking it off my shelf, I was surprised how deep my thought was on this topic while reading the various stories. I found it to be a book that challenged me to actually consider how I am living and making decisions. A book that challenged me to change.