Time Travel
Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three, when they spoke to Pharaoh. Exodus 7:7 NASB
Eighty years old – Today is my birthday. I will be celebrating it on an airplane flying over the Atlantic. I have been celebrating birthdays at 35,000 feet for quite a number of years now. Seems like the preparation work for a birthday on land isn’t quite finished. It reminds me of Moses. When he turned my age, he was on the backside of the wilderness, tending sheep. He was probably wondering what happened to his life. Once he was destined for royal occupation. Once he was respected. Once he was somebody. But now, all these years later, he was simply a shepherd in a remote part of the country, anonymous and unfulfilled. Preparation time. Only he didn’t know it. He didn’t know that a decade later he would be standing in front of the most powerful man on earth, proclaiming the will of YHVH. He didn’t know he would lead the people out of bondage. He didn’t know that he would become the most famous prophet of Israel. All he knew was that he was traveling in some far corner of the world, trying to figure out why his life seemed so purposeless. I’m guessing that if he celebrated birthdays he had more than one in a remote place all alone.
Please don’t take my reflection on Moses as if I were complaining about my birthday. No, I am blessed. I’m flying over the Atlantic so that I can get to Virginia Beach to spend quality time with dear friends. I’m flying over the Atlantic because I have spent almost a month with Rosanne in Italy, doing a bit of research for some pretty exciting projects to come. I’m flying over the Atlantic because I have the ability to go from one continent to another in a few hours instead of months. No, don’t feel as if I am missing out on anything. Just recognize that I am experiencing time travel—the time I have traveled on this life long journey to discover myself and my God.
Some cultures don’t celebrate birthdays. I’m not sure why. It seems to me that the day of birth is a real celebration. It is the beginning of a personal journey toward intention, and beginnings are important. Of course, so are endings, but just like our birthdays, we have very little say about our end days. What we can do something about is all the in-between days, all of those celebrations of still being here, alive and kicking, moving toward the end day in a deliberate way. And today I have the opportunity to reflect on all those in-between days of my life. All the things that have happened that I never expected. All the twists and turns of my life that have brought me to this place, 35,000 feet above the Atlantic. All the people I have met, the friends I have made, the ones I love. What a blessed life I have! What an honor it is to live today! How exciting to know that God still has more in store. I have been given the great gift of life and the thrill of becoming human. It’s just amazing.
So, thank you. Each of you. You’ve changed me. I wasn’t on this path before God got His hands on me and altered my course. And now the direction of my life wanders through your life. I couldn’t have asked for a greater challenge or a greater reward. I’ll wave to you from 35,000 feet—and I hope to see you soon.
Happy birthday, happy travel and happy destination! We are glad to be on this journey with you, albeit never meeting. May YHVH bless you and yours. Michael and Arnella
It’s a privilege to share this journey with you. even though it is a recent start with you already my mind set has been challenged. So Yahweh bless you richly and deeply on this you birthday. And who knows. a decade from now you may also be standing before kings? Shalom ?
Happy Birthday Skip–wishing you a blessed, trip, day and year ahead! I am forever grateful our paths intersected over a decade ago.
Skip, I am grateful that you were born. If you were not you, obediently standing in your place, I would be much less of a person, much poorer and differently defined, that’s for sure! Thank you also for loving enough to share yourself and yours, including your audience, so generously with, well, itself. This tiny slice of the Body has given me a chance to be real, including a chance to see how unreal I am still. Every day you and all of yours reflects me and all of us to ourselves and each other. I get to see how far I am from who I am, and so repent. Thank you – and all of y’all – for giving me so MUCH to repent for!
I wanted to say a special thank you to Rosanne, your other half. She is a large part of what others around you get. There are not many people so generous as to share at the level she faithfully does. She is a large part, I feel, of the you that is there for all of us, so here’s also a big shout out to Rosanne! Hope both of you have had a fantastic month in her family’s home country.
Finally, I want to say thank you for today’s topic. I woke up feeling like the last decade of my life has been a nonproductive period of my life. I was suffering from ingratitude and uselessness, and you reminded me that life could begin at 80! I instantly got grateful! May we all be found faithfully standing in our places, as you are in yours. Thank you for being you and for being obedient. Both of those things have made a huge difference in my life.
Happy birthday Skip! I hope that this year is as good if not better than the last. Thanks for your work.
Happy birthday Skip! So glad to be on this journey with you and Rosanne! What a blessed life indeed!
Happy birthday Skip. I thank God for you as well! As you’ve changed me and changed all of us because of your obedience to the call God has on your life.
Happy birthday blessings, Skip! I waved back to you, but hope to see you soon, as well.
Happy birthday Skip, thank for your teaching!!
Happy birthday Skip. I feel blessed that my life intersected in a small way with yours. Thanks for never being satisfied with what we know about God and ourselves, knowing that there’s always more to discover. Your insights always challenge me. I look forward to seeing what revelations you discover in the future. I hope you experience many more blessed years of life.
A wise man once said (and I paraphrase); ‘Think about this, for nine months God worked on you in the womb. A perfectly ordered place where everything worked perfectly to create you by God’s hand there. And when you came out of that perfect place of God, you had the innate desire to return to that perfection and to work towards getting there; the HaOlam Haba’
I’ve always thought our birthday should be celebrated by showering mom for being that vessel where God worked on you for those nine months…perhaps our first Ezer Kenegdo appointed by God.
By the way, the wise man I quoted above? He’s celebrating his birthday at 35,000 feet over the Atlantic today.
Thankful the direction of your life wandered though my life. Many blessings on your birthday and through the year to come.
Dixie
I know today will have MANY well-wishes and lots of adoring words (truth in the loving ones typed below me and, I’m sure , posts after me….. but Happy Birthday Skip. You’ve impacted our family, our thinking, our paradigm and have become family.
I love how a community was created for us. This can be a lonely journey (as you beautifully wrote so many times) as we learn and understand.
“Thank You” just doesn’t seem to encapsulate what I feel or think when I remember your words. But gratitude is the first thing that comes to mind about learning with y’all.
There’s a certain “something” about people who know God.
You know it often by the knowing look of love in their eyes.
And their smiles. Their warm and assuring personalities. The
kindness they exude. The love that pours out of them with all
they say and do. It’s almost as if God Himself is in them.
And He is!
Skip, you’re one of those people. Happy Birthday!
For the world traveler…
יום הולדת שמח (yom huledet sameach)
Feliz cumpleaños
祝 你 生日 快乐 (Zhu Ni Shenri Kuaile)
Alles Gute zum Geburtstag
Joyeux anniversaire
생일 축하해요 (saengil chukhahaeyo)
gelukkige verjaarsdag
všechno nejlepší
na ta ekatostisis
hau’oli la Hanau
felix dies natalis
selamat hari jadi
С днем рождения (S dniom rojdeniya)
chúc mừng sinh nhật
o tanjôbi omedetô gozaimasu
And of course, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Happy birthday, Skip. May your day be blessed. Thank you for sharing with all of us. It is such a gift to so many. I am able to realize and share with so many what I learn through you. Again, thank you, and happy birthday. Shalom
Shalom! I’m thankful you were born Skip. Over the past six years Abba has frequently used your writing and speaking to help me find my way forward. Being a trailblazer is not a comfortable calling. Thank you for not giving up. Happy birthday!
Happy Birthday, Skip! I ditto the words already spoken. You will probably never know the impact you have had on my family. Most of my life I allowed teachers to teach me what to think. You have taught me not WHAT but HOW to think. Thank you for the challenges. You are loved by many! (and I would guess, hated by more than a few, LOL)
Happy and blessed birthday to you, Skip. May you live fully alive to your very last day here on earth!
Your fellow so-journer,
Beverly Hudson
Happy Birthday Brother! Blessings to you and your family. Thank you for all you do to share what you are learning with the rest of us who are trying to become human as well. Semper Fidelis
Happy birthday Skip!
Happy Birthday! Safe travel to both of you.
Happy birthday my friend!
Happy Birthday, Skip! I’m sorry that I will miss your visit to Virginia Beach this time around.
Here’s a quote that might amuse you, especially given the ‘rowboat’ metaphor of time, past, present and future:
“Faster than light travel IS possible but only if you are facing backwards.”
–Charles Belair
In Psalm 4, David sings to the Lord, ‘In my heart, You have put gladness.’ To which I say Amen and today I add, Thank you also for our friend who daily helps enrich that gladness. Happy Birthday Skip. May you travel well!
Oh Skip Happy Birthday!!! Emil is very excited, he said to tell you Happy Birthday from him too. He shares your special day, today he turns 12 🙂 We are another family very grateful for your willingness to let us tag along on this journey. Just last evening I was explaining to two of our older kids how, at precisely the right moment, your teaching and influence came into our lives… and how if it weren’t for those our family could easily have splintered and gone in different directions. Always and forever grateful that you have followed YHWH and shared your journey with the rest of us!
Happy Birthday from the Bennetts, Skip! Getting to know you and Rosanne has added wonderfully to our lives. Be blessed.
Happy birthday . Skip all the blessings that are sent your way we’re stacked up high how far would they reach. Far enough that God would fulfill them and send them back in his time that he sees you need them the most.
Happy Birthday Skip. Many blessings~
Happy Birthday Skip- So blessed and honored that you share your journey with us. Looking forward to seeing you and Rosanne in July.
Happy Birthday Skip! May our Father God continue to bless you with wisdom and peace as you share with others to help them grow in the knowledge of our Father and how He works in our lives. Praise be His Name forever.