I can home last night to see our favorite neighborhood tree fallen to the ground. My heart sank in sadness as this tree has greeted us with vibrant welcome homes for seven years. The colors – the shape of the branches – the uniqueness of the leaves – the perfect position where you just can’t miss it – all of it so so good! But as we know, so much rises and falls daily. This is part of our life and we must always work to beautify this world. Shirts sleeves rolled up – sweat on the brow – an attitude of gratitude – and it is possible.
RESULTS AND ROSES
Edgar Guest
The man who wants a garden fair, Or small or very big, With flowers growing here and there, Must bend his back and dig.
The things are mighty few on earth That wishes can attain. Whate’er we want of any worth We’ve got to work to gain.
It matters not what goal you seek Its secret here reposes: You’ve got to dig from week to week To get Results or Roses.
📚Day 1 – 2025/26 School Year📚 Koko – 11th FW Internet Academy Norah – 9th FW High School Merritt – 7th Lakota MS Holland – 7th Lakota MS Jewel – 6th Lakota MS ❤️We love you kids so much – soar like Falcons and Eagles!🦅
Lord God, may your Holy Spirit of life and love be poured out through our lives and may we grow in accordance to the gifts that you desire from each of us. Be with all in our school systems this year as we are better together. In trust and hope in you and the blessings of community. Amen.
Our work and the sweat of our brow and heart beat within our chest is meant for purpose and well being. Every person is to be blessed with dignity and hope. May we bear those gifts through our life’s work.
THE BRIDGE BUILDER
Will Allen Dromgoole
An old man going a lone highway Came at the evening, cold and gray, To a chasm vast and wide and steep, With waters rolling cold and deep.
The old man crossed in the twilight dim, The sullen stream had no fears for him; But he turned when safe on the other side, And built a bridge to span the tide.
“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim near, “You are wasting your strength with building here. Your journey will end with the ending day, You never again will pass this way. You’ve crossed the chasm, deep and wide, Why build you this bridge at eventide?
The builder lifted his old gray head. “Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said, “There followeth after me today A youth whose feet must pass this way. The chasm that was nought to me To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be; He, too, must cross in the twilight dim Good friend, I am building this bridge for him.
Today we ventured home with smiles on our faces. What an epic summer of Rooted and Rising as a family in Christ. We learned a lot about ourselves and each other – beautiful and good things and difficult and challenging things. Like all of life, we are being made new.
Of course we needed to do some back to school shopping on our way home. With supplies now purchased the kids will be ready for Tuesday and crossing new thresholds for the year ahead.
The season has turned from summer to fall. This sabbatical chapter has now ended. We were blessed to be a blessing and that is what we look forward to doing. Time to be All In with everything before us.
Thank you to the Lilly Foundation and to Grace Lutheran and to all of those who made this time and experience possible. Pure grace – pure gift – pure life!
This sabbatical blog now ends and will be adapted to become a life’s journey blog of thoughts and reflections along the way. If interested, you are welcome to follow along here.
Step by step we go into the future. Thanks be to God!
Prayer for the Readers
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. 16 I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit 17 and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. 18 I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
I awoke early to go on a long Camino like walk of 13.2 miles. The ocean air and evergreens were accompanying me the whole way. I also ran into this guy.
For every step on this earth I am grateful.
My doctorate professor, Dr. Leonard Sweet, wrote this creed that I prayed through as I walked and walked and walked. I am thankful for faith insights that take us further and deeper into the future.
A Third Millennium Creed for the Church:
Let us conclude by covenant—a creed not just to recite, but to live. A confession not just of what we believe, but of who we are becoming.
We believe in one God— Creator of atoms and algorithms, Father of flesh and fiber optics, the Alpha and Omega of all intelligence, artificial and authentic.
We believe in Jesus Christ— the Word made flesh, not code, the Image of the invisible God, not avatar, the Truth that no algorithm can compute, the Life that no program can replicate, the Way that every pathway must ultimately follow.
We believe in the Holy Spirit— the divine fire that no artificial flame can match, the Counselor who speaks all languages, ancient and digital, the Presence that fills every space, physical and virtual, the Power that connects all hearts across every network.
We believe in the Church— not as institution but as incarnation, not as organization but as organism, not as system but as body, scattered across continents and concentrated in community, gathered in sanctuaries and dispersed through screens, one church in many locations, many expressions of one Lord.
We believe in sacred imagination— the God-breathed creativity that sees possibility in every pixel, hope in every hyperlink, and Christ in every connection.
We believe our calling is to embody the gospel— in every age and on every stage, with every tool and through every technology, loving God with heart, soul, mind, and bandwidth, and loving our neighbors as ourselves, whether next door or networked globally.
We believe in the resurrection of the body— that matter matters to God, that flesh is sacred, that physical presence is irreplaceable, and that digital connection serves but never substitutes for incarnational community.
We believe in life everlasting— a future where every tear is wiped away, every algorithm serves love, every network connects to the divine, and every heart beats in rhythm with the heart of God.
Therefore, we covenant to create with care, to innovate with integrity, to connect with compassion, and to burn with the fire of divine love in the Third Millennium and beyond.
In the name of the Father who imagined us, the Son who redeemed us, and the Holy Spirit who empowers us, we say: Amen.
May the God of all imagination set our hearts ablaze with love, our minds afire with wisdom, and our spirits burning bright with hope. May we be the church the world needs—ancient in faith, contemporary in expression, and eternal in purpose. Come, Holy Spirit. Kindle us anew. Amen.
After a slower paced afternoon of being together in the sun on the beach, an evening campfire of smores warmed our hearts and tummies.
The fog has not lifted here so we dance and play on the sand and within the clouds. The fog is an invitation to slow down and reflect. We did some of that and we also played hard in Pacific City on the sand dunes.
This summer we talked about lot about, “what makes your heart sing?” The starfish inspired us to pray through our days and to take some snapshots of joyful moments along the way. I hope you have felt joy and peace as your heart sings out.
With the Starfish image and metaphor, I give thanks to Olamipo Adeniji for this reflection and resharing a well known story:
We are called to be difference makers:
“Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as you ever can.”
I would like to start by sharing an old story adapted from The Star Thrower, by Loren Eiseley
The Star Thrower Book Cover
You may have heard this one, but I find that it doesn’t hurt to be reminded of it every once in a while. First, let me tell you the story, and then we can talk about it.
One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean. Approaching the boy, he asked, “What are you doing?” The boy replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.” “Son,” the man said, “don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish? You can’t make a difference!”After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish, and threw it back into the surf. Then, smiling at the man, he said…” I made a difference for that one.”
For many of us the “starfish story” is the standard call to duty, knowing that each life you touch matters, even if it is only one.
We all have the opportunity to help create positive change, you sometimes find yourself thinking, “I’m already really busy, and how much of a difference can I really make?” I think this is especially true when we’re talking about addressing massive social problems like tackling world hunger or finding a cure for cancer, but it pops up all of the time in our everyday lives, as well. So when I catch myself thinking that way, it helps to remember this story. You might not be able to change the entire world, but at least you can change a small part of it, for someone.
If everything you did had to have a huge, immediate impact before you gave it a little of your time, then you’d end up doing very little with your life. And sometimes, the little things we do can add up and turn into big things — they make ripples that spread further than we can see.
Those starfish that the young boy saved may have gone on to produce thousands more.
So the next time you get chance to make a small difference, don’t think of the big picture and just do it — after all, it might not make a difference to you, but to somebody else, it might.
On the Camino pilgrimage I learned a simple, meaningful word: Ultreia. It is an old Latin call—“Go beyond.” Ultreia calls pilgrims forward, urging them to keep walking farther than they thought they could, to go deeper into the journey. For me that word is more than a travel slogan; it is a spiritual posture. Ultreia invites us to go beyond our comfort zones, beyond our assumptions, beyond what is merely convenient, so we can live more fully into the call of Jesus.
We are called to go beyond self-interest to love and to serve others – to go beyond what is easy to do and do the hard and necessary work – to go beyond in Christlike imitation – to go to the cross and beyond in living resurrection life where real life and love truly win in the hearts and souls of humanity – to bring the world to full flourishing. This is our solidarity and connection as fellow people of faith.
Ultreia – the term is often paired with “et suseia,” which translates to “and upward” or “and higher,” further emphasizing the forward and upward movement. For years I have been saying and signing off on letters onwards and upwards – and now I have this affirmation for those words and that way of life. Yes Lord – we hear your call and move onward and upwards.
“Ultreïa et suseia, Deus adjuva nos!” is then a cry that incites to motion and to the exploration of what is beyond ourselves, with “God’s help.”Simply translated, it means “Let’s keep going further; let’s keep going higher… God helps”.
This is the call … this is a living faith … this is a forward going journey … this is being the body of Christ, the church, together.
1 Corinthians 13:12: “For now we see through a glass, dimly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know fully even as also I am known”.
James 4:14: “You do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes”.
With all that the world throws at people, at creation, at us, and with all the other unknowns, mysteries, and questions of this life, may we be good encouragers and light bearers as we journey throw the fog….with God’s help!
After a great breakfast at the Egg Factory in Boise, we hit the road for Oregon. We love this drive – lots of variety and the Columbia River Gorge is always a treat to drive alongside.
It has become a family tradition to spend a few days at the Oregon coast to center before we all dive into the fall of busyness. This year we center here in Manzanita. We’ll spend lots of time walking the beach – playing volleyball – adventuring and hiking. We are going lots of different directions this fall and hoping we will do well in keeping all the plates in the air. Before then, a few final days of this summer sabbatical to rest, refresh, give thanks, and prepare to launch forward.
We then loaded up for our high mileage day thru the Rockies. So many memories flooding the mind with each mile passed. 14 years of our lives poured out and grown here.
Rocky Mountain High
He was born in the summer of his 27th year Comin’ home to a place he’d never been before Left yesterday behind him, you might say he was born again Might say he found a key for every door
When he first came to the mountains, his life was far away On the road and hangin’ by a song But the string’s already broken, and he doesn’t really care It keeps changin’ fast, it don’t last for long
But the Colorado Rocky Mountain high I’ve seen it rainin’ fire in the sky Shadow from the starlight is softer than a lullaby Rocky Mountain high Rocky Mountain high
He climbed cathedral mountains, he saw silver clouds below He saw everything as far as you can see And they say that he got crazy once, he tried to touch the sun And he lost a friend but kept his memory
Now he walks in quiet solitude, the forests and the streams Seeking grace in every step he takes His sight has turned inside himself to try and understand The serenity of a clear blue mountain lake
And the Colorado Rocky Mountain high I’ve seen it rainin’ fire in the sky You talk to God and listen to the casual reply Rocky Mountain high Rocky Mountain high
Now his life is full of wonder, but his heart still knows some fear Of a simple thing he cannot comprehend Why they try to tear the mountains down to bring in a couple more More people, more scars upon the land
And the Colorado Rocky Mountain high I’ve seen it rainin’ fire in the sky Though he’d be a poorer man if he never saw an eagle fly Rocky Mountain high
It’s the Colorado Rocky Mountain high I’ve seen it rainin’ fire in the sky Friends around the campfire, everybody’s high Rocky Mountain high Rocky Mountain high Rocky Mountain high Rocky Mountain high Doo-be-dee (yeah)
Then Grand Junction, Price, Provo, Salt Lake, Twin Falls, and Boise. Uffdah.
In Idaho we experienced a flash flood on the interstate and earlier in the day watched a car soon spin out of control before ending in the ditch. Can never be too safe on the roads.
We arrived to Boise this evening and stopped at In and Out for supper before a nice long walk to end this 14 hour sitting day.
Johnson 2025 Sabbatical 