If you fill a bathtub with water, throw a cork in it, and remove the drain stopper, the water level will slowly drop and the cork will go along for the ride, slowly getting closer to the bottom of the tub. At a certain point (and there are physics behind this that we don’t pretend to understand) the water immediately above the drain will start forming a subtle whirlpool. As that whirlpool grows in size and speed, the cork will get sucked into the whirlpool and start circling the drain. At some point, unless the size of the cork is greater than the size of the drain, down the drain goes the cork! Because he still has youth worker DNA in him, Mike likes to joke that the 70’s are the decade when we start “circling the drain,” so to speak. While we are aware that the Bible is entirely accurate when it describes our lives as “a vapor,” this is a decade when the awareness of our vapor status can increase. Although it doesn’t have to be that way! The chairman of our sondance Board of Directors, Don Snow, is 92 years young and can flyfish most readers under the table. And of course there is Mike’s biblical hero Caleb, who famously said when he came to Joshua to claim the inheritance that Moses had promised him, “So here I am today, eighty-five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I am just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then.” (Joshua 14:10-11) So while Mike may continue to joke about circling the drain, we reject the implications, and embrace the seventies as the best decade of our lives. And here is our biblical mandate: Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, ‘till I declare Your power to the next generation,, Your might to all who are to come. (Ps. 71:18) We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, His power, and the wonders He has done . . . so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. (Ps. 78:4,6) We are giving our attention to investing in the spiritual lives of the next generation, and encouraging the “drain-circlers” of our own generation to not spiritually retire, but to do likewise. In a collaboration with the International Prayer Council, the National Prayer Committee, and 24-7 Prayer USA (we are involved with all three of these groups) we are meeting monthly, via Zoom, with about 25 young leaders from throughout North America who desire to become “all in” mighty men and women of God. We also meet regularly, in person or through Zoom, with a number of individuals and small groups who have similar desires. Some are younger and want to finish strong spiritually; others are older but need to be “reminded” that there is no spiritual retirement age, and they have much to give younger believers! We also continue to lead the Hailey House of Prayer with the dozen or so volunteers, praying that His Kingdom would come and His will be done in Blaine County, Idaho and beyond! We stay active in community affairs, still host guests here, Mike still serves on a few local boards and does the chaplain thing from time to time. And we pray. All this due in large part to your prayers and generosity. Mike has a spiritual practice of asking the Lord at the start of each year for a theme, along with relevant biblical passages, that will be his focus. He also has a number of “statements of faith” that stay the same year after year. He reads through his theme passages and “statements of faith” regularly. Here’s one of the statements that summarizes what God has called us to do in this “circling” season: “I will give the rest of my days, with my wife, to awaken the church, equip the willing, engage the culture, disciple the nations, and otherwise bear witness of Christ. Together, we will help people actually believe what the Bible says about them, and thus discover their true identity, purpose, belonging, and meaning through Christ.”
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