This past weekend we had a family reunion of sorts. On my mom's side of the family there's a bit of Irish pride which seems to get greener around St. Patty's day. It's a great opportunity to get all the grandparents, aunt's & uncles, cousins, second cousins, grandkids, great-grandkids and people who just happen to be dating someone in the family at the moment, in the same room at one time.
Saturday during our party I had a chance to catch up with my best friend who happened to be my cousin growing up. I've known him since I was born and we had a bond that could never be broken type of friendship up until around the age of 18 or 19. What happened to our friendship? Oh a number of things I suppose. Different interests, different priorities, different goals, different peers and of course a big factor...God interceding in my life. I remember the moment I realized we were totally headed down different paths when I went to visit him back in 1993. One of his friends at the time asked him, "Where's the Bible thumper?" I think my cousin felt bad and after a long conversation later with each other we both I think realized life was indeed changing. When you're a young zealous christian, you sometimes say things that don't make sense because you're so excited about this new found God and you really want everyone you care about to know Him. Unfortunately you sometimes forget you're just a "babe in Christ" and you tend to spit up all over them making a bit of a mess and can become rather annoying if you're not careful. Which pretty much sums up how I feel it went back then. But really, when you're life changes so drastically, God puts a fork in the road and naturally when you follow him, your relationships and priorities change. It never changes the love you have for the people in your life before, it just makes that love deeper and different.
Over the years I've googled his name to catch up on his mural artwork. He's an extremely talented painter/artist that has been painting the walls of businesses all over the country. Some of his work is really astonishing. Check out some of his work on his Myspace account here.
So catching up with him Saturday night was fun. It really was good to see him again. He even came to hear me teach Sunday! However, I did not get a chance to say goodbye to him. Michael...if you get a chance to log on to a computer and actually look up my blog, I hope you come back soon and please be sure to make my family one of your first visits.
