Dear Tom:
Reading last night, my thoughts turned to one of Luis’s best sermons and his belief that when we go as far as we can go, it is alright with God. I could kick myself for not getting a recording of this sermon. I always mean to do so, but then I put it off until too late. I cannot do Justice to his words. So forgive me Luis and Tom for botching the message. The message I took away is that each of us has limits on how far we can go in many areas. For example, perhaps we can forgive someone who has harmed us deeply, but we still can’t invite that person in our home. We go as far as we can go. We offer money and food to a homeless person, but can’t offer him a ride to the shelter. We go as far as we can go. Everyone can offer up an example of going only so far, and not being able to go farther. We simply have to turn the rest over to God.
When we find something in a human face that calls out, not just for help, but in some sense for our self, how far do we go in answering the call, how far can we go, given we have our own life to get on with as does he has his? I think that rather than asking ourselves how far we can go, God asks us to just go for it. Like the Nike commercial rather than asking ourselves permission, we just do it and see how far we go. I believe that in going as far as we can go we will find out we can go a lot further than we think or ever dreamed. Like the “Buttonhook” when we go past where we need to go, we also give ourselves room to return a step if we need. In the world, and in ourselves we simply go as far as we can, and in so doing we travel in new and exciting territory. This side of Glory — maybe that is the best we can hope for, and it is certainly all that God desires.
Your friend, Webb
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