Tell Me Now Who You're Going To Be (Update 457)

The new class of interns started at GTCCF, bright and early in the thick summer morning. I stayed up late on Friday and made a new friend. Saturday was full of reading on the Decatur square in between trips to various places to meet friends for meals.

I said goodbye to Chris and Liz Tison. I gave them back their copies of season 6 and 7 of The West Wing, a show that makes me a better person. I remember meeting Liz at a restaurant called "The Mad Italian", a place where we used to go to dinner every Sunday night after hearing this young guy named Kris McDaniel preach at a church on the north side of town called "Atlanta Vineyard". I didn't know what Kris was going to go on to do. I didn't know that I would be having lunch with 8 years later. Was it 8 years ago? I think so. I didn't know that I would spend days and days at a lake with Liz and her soon-to-be husband.

I said goodbye to Marisa and Justin Jackson, who are moving off to Germany. I remember meeting Marisa at a party, maybe six years ago. I had no idea that we would go to Spain together.

I sat in front of someone in a coffee shop one afternoon and savored it. I savored it because time is moving on, marching on and we are moving with it. I don't know when that next cup of coffee will be. Maybe in a few weeks? Maybe in a few years? Not knowing makes me want to linger in those times, in those moments.

Because I remember when I met some people and others I don't have a clue. But I wish that, when I met someone, I could look them in the eye and asked them the honest truth: "Who are you? Who are you going to be?" Who is this person sitting in front of me that I am meeting for the first time? Who is this person that I've come so far with? Who are you, friends that are moving away? Who will you be, in your lives and in mine in the years that spill out over time that we call "Life"?

I don't know. Derek Webb sang that life is better off a mystery. And I suppose that he is right. Time keeps on moving. Interns go through doors, we board planes, we finish our coffee and head for the exit. What's next? Will you be there? I hope so.