37,000 athletes. 100 countries. 26.2 miles. We saw our first NYC Marathon this morning on two blocks from our apartment in Brooklyn. There is something quite humbling about watching someone on a quest, chasing down glory. Many believe the marathon is the best day of the year in New York City and I am becoming a believer. With music blaring on street corners, we ate donuts from the local coffee shop cheered on as many names we could read from the jerseys running by.
The race is a great sea of humanity. Every size and shape you could think of. People with one arm or prosthetic legs. Short, tall, and a man in a tuxedo. Flags of every nation plastered across jerseys. I couldn't think of anything that set these people apart from the people standing on the sidelines expect for a burning passion to run the race. And even then, we get to be the ones passing out paper towels and kleenex to our sweaty friends with runny noses.
This is a both a 26.2 mile party and a sacred journey. I will never forget the Chinese man in a wheel chair pumping his left arm, his only good arm, with every once of energy he had. I have wandered the streets of New York faster than he was moving, but there was something noble about his quest. Behind him there were two younger faces, perhaps his daughter and son ready to push him if he needed, no doubt whispering words of encouragement when he wonders if he will really make it.
The truth is that you do not make it by pushing to the front at every mile. You train your body, and you pace yourself to last to the end. And if you are running to win, you may have just enough left to sprint to the end.
I love that this city is full of such visceral reminders of what life is really about: that we are built for an extraordinary journey with complete strangers who will become our brothers & sisters. But the NYC Marathon culminates on days like today, we find ourselves on a journey of a different scope.
This fall has been a particularly rich season in the lives of the NYU Navigators as we've discovered how deeply God desires us to love one another. One of our biggest fears coming into this year was that the growing size of the ministry would be prohibitive for deep community. Whispers of disunity and divisiveness reached us as we were preparing to return to New York.
One student describes the Navs as a group of Type A personalities, confused as to why their leadership skills no longer work the way they did before college. Our challenge to them has been to consider what ministering out of their identity in Christ practically means in their lives.
Somehow, 38 of these students ended up at our fall retreat. (Yes, the NYU Navigators are now 'The Big Fellowship.') After the official programs of the weekend ended, we invited the students to share their prayer requests with the group and let us lift them up in prayer. It began with one senior who, though she prefers to be very abstract and theoretical in conversation, reflected on God's practical mercy on her during a season of great pain and disobedience which eventually led to an addiction.
Over the course of the night, many more would confess their burdens and their hardened hearts and ask each other for prayer. As the spirit broke through the pride and self-protection in these students hearts, they began to believe that Jesus was serious about making a new creation in them, individually and as a community.
We are excited and blessed by the fruit that is being borne here, but we are also aware that it is preparation for the journey ahead. We share these things so that you may rejoice with us, and share in the prayers for these students lives, but we also ask for prayers of protection as the students learn to move forward. Some of them will need professional counseling, some will need to form new habits to step away from addictions, some of them will simply need to be bold in making friends. And some of them have not yet acknowledged their sin. In the meantime, we have been adding to our numbers each week.
We are quite in love with these men & women, and continue to covet your prayers to ask for God's grace on this ministry, and on us. Sonja accepted a job with Redeemer Presbyterian Church in late September, which, while rich in opportunities to grow and learn, has increased the demands of her time. This job has also alleviated some of our financial burden, so we only needs to raise $10,000 more for this year's budget.
All that to say, yes, we are still alive even though you haven't heard from us in several weeks. We are sorry it's been so long. We hope to improve our communications by adding a blog to our communications tools. This letter will be among the first entries of www.ilikestripes.blogspot.com.
Happy November!
