Adding It All Up

   I loved being gone, but I am glad to be back. It is a wonderful thing to return home to a great community and an even better congregation where we know we are called to serve and grow in serving together.
   As many of you know, Julie, the boys, and I spent the better part of a week in Lake Junaluska, NC for our Carruth family reunion. Over 55 cousins and relatives gathered around kickball, fireworks, food, sliding down a mountain stream, kayaking, food, telling stories, and then plenty of food and desserts. 
   We returned from there and then last week Julie and I flew to visit friends at their home in Las Vegas. Jay and Amanda were in our youth group a decade ago and have grown to be some of our best friends. He serves in the US Air Force and she works as a pharmacist. They welcomed us like family and showed us the sights. As we approached home when it was all over, my mathematical instincts took over and I tallied the following numbers:

• 0 lost at the casinos in Las Vegas. 
• 1 book read. (Henri Nouwen's The Return of the Prodigal Son)
• 2 Sundays away from worship with the people of Epworth meant 2 Sundays worshiping with the people of GOD in other places. We attended a bilingual service at Julie's home church in Roswell and then a contemporary service in Las Vegas where Jay and Amanda attend. 
• 3 kayaks carried my father, my son and myself across Lake Junaluska for an hour as we raced and splashed each other. 
• 4 hour excursion to see the amazing scale and engineering prowess of the Hoover Dam.
• 5 hours of little sleep in the D-Terminal of the Las Vegas Airport waiting on the next flight after the first one left without us!

   I had to laugh as we were traveling home and tallying up our time away. These numbers are not very impressive. Considering how long we were gone and the places we visited, they are kind of small, to be honest. Some things defy accounting. Some things are too big for numbers. 
   Instead words will suffice: Amazing friends, Beautiful wife, Crazy boys, Magnificent GOD. While these are all true here at home it is nice to know they are true when we are away from home, as well.
   May the GOD who bids us come and follow Him into a life so abundant that numbers often fail be with you in your goings and comings. Grace and Peace, Scott