Since I've been gone

I know it's been awhile. Things have been busy. We leveled off the rise and fall of Brent's death, for now, and took a vacation to Michigan to Chris' parent's cabin on Lake Superior in the UP - basically Canada. We were there when they got a foot of snow in early October. Crazy. I'll post some pictures soon. Then I got sick, and it took a week to recover. We went to the Blue Ridge Parkway this past weekend to see the leaves. I'll post some of those pix too; they are incredible, and I am so thankful to live in such a beautiful part of the world.
This week I have been consumed with a few things. One of them is a conference I got to go to all day on Tuesday at Wake Forest Divinity led by Brian McLaren. Most of what he shared I had heard or read before, but it was fantastic to hear it again and think on it all again. I'll share one thing in particular that he said that has been resonating in my head. He was talking about our evangelistic approach to other religions and how the modern Christian has reacted in basically three ways: 1. to kill them, 2. to ignore them, or 3. to convert them. He challenged us to think of a forth way to respond, to love them. And to love them means to care enough to just do that period. Not love them with an ulterior motive to "lead them to Christ." Just love them. Maybe I'll write more thoughts some other time about this conference.
The second thing that has been consuming my week is the approaching anniversary of Kyle Lake's death. Kyle died on October 30. I'm not sure I even want to say anything about it right now but just to put it out there and prepare my heart. I am so grateful for the intermingling of his death with All Saints Day and even Halloween. I am grateful to be able to celebrate his life. Chris and I will light a candle on Monday for Kyle and remember all he taught us and how he embodied Christ. I'm sure I'll comment on it more later, but for now, I'm tired. That seems to be a common element in our life in the last year.