Milestones and Signposts

I'd like to make the excuse that my blog updates have been lacking in number lately because there haven't been any big milestones to write about. I haven't had another birthday or even traveled to another province (see previous entries). I've just been studying hard, hanging out with friends, going to church, and trying to stay cool in the recent heat wave. Seemingly nothing new or newsworthy to write about.

Until today. I have no excuse anymore, because I hit a milestone today. It involved a hacky sack.

To get a fuller appreciation for this milestone, you may want to review the blog entries dated July 1 and July 16. After the sewer incident of July 13, I noticed a marked decline in my desire to practice hacky sack regularly. For some time it seemed to me that my end-of-the-semester goal of 50 consecutive hacks was going to be unattainable, and I would have a good excuse of "an unforeseen variable" to justify my failure. Last week I had a breakthrough session of 45 consecutive hacks, though, which renewed my confidence that 50 was still in the realm of possibility. And today, the bar was finally hurdled: 53 consecutive hacks! It was a milestone moment. And one that occurred three weeks before the "deadline" of the end of the semester!

I know that kicking a hacky sack 53 times in a row may sound rather juvenile and inconsequential for a 25-year-old to be writing about. It's a number that wouldn't sound too impressive to "real" hacky sack players. And what's more, it's a pastime that sounds rather trite when there are starving children to be nourished, war-torn or disaster-ridden homes to be rebuilt, injustices to be rectified.

Sometimes it feels like we have nothing to show for a day's work besides another X on the calendar to mark the close of another day. Sometimes it's hard to know when the milestones have actually been reached because we haven't noticed the signposts along the way indicating that we're on the right path.

Sometimes, it's the little things that are the big causes for celebration.

Last weekend I went on a short out-of-town excursion north of the city to visit the mother of one of my good friends here. The mother had been gravely sick for some time with cancer, but has since recovered and is in good health. I have no reason to believe that it wasn't for the faith-filled prayers of many people that the Almighty Lord in heaven healed this woman. (Sorry, I should know better than to use double negatives, so let me say it again, more explicitly this time: I believe she was healed by the hand of God.) My friend invited me to come with him to visit his mother in order to share in the opportunity of praising the Lord and giving Him credit for His miracles, and encouraging his mother to recognize these miracles also and attribute them not to some benevolent but unknown spirit, but rather to the same One who was written about in the pages of the Bible.

This was the first time I had met my friend's mother, so I didn't have previous signposts along the way to note her improved condition. I couldn't understand much of the exchange in Hmong that was taking place between mother and son as we sat down on the concrete slab of floor in the little makeshift house where his mom is staying these days. But I did see that my friend shared God's Word and Love with his mother in song and message and prayer.

It's not the first time that my friend has shared the beautiful gospel message with his mother. And it may not have felt like a milestone day for my friend (though I hope that it was at least a signpost kind of day for him in that he was encouraged by the continually improving health of his mother and the Isaiah 55 encouragement that God's Word does not return to Him empty).

Going with my friend was a milestone experience for me, though. Not in the sense that I achieved some goal or surpassed some expectation. It was milestone for me in the sense that it is one of those experiences that will probably stay etched inside my memory for the rest of my life -- far more than the day I accomplished 53 consecutive hacks.

I think that as time passes by, we might note that the milestones we had previously reached have become the signposts marking the way for even more milestones. It makes good logical sense: now that I've surpassed 50 consecutive hacks, 75 might be the next predetermined milestone moment in my hacky sack adventures, and I'll look back to 50 hacks as a signpost along the way. Likewise, the milestone experience seeing the Good News shared from son to mother will someday be looked back on as a signpost moment for some other eternally profound milestone moment.

In a world with no lack of starving children to be nourished, war-torn or disaster-ridden homes to be rebuilt, and injustices to be rectified, it feels good to have milestone moments, even in the little things. Sometimes the little things aren't so little.

Love,

Eric