The Peripatetic Preacher Anticipates Celebrations

2019 is the year of my wife’s and my 50th wedding anniversary. It hardly seems imaginable that we have been together that long, but the calendar is not, as they say, fake news. We were indeed married in Stafford, KS on August 23, 1969, and if my poor math skills do not fail me, that means that this August will be 50 years from that hot Kansas afternoon. A golden anniversary it will be, though I very much doubt that any gold will pass between us. Our 50-year-old matching gold bands will have to suffice. Inside those bands are inscribed two sayings: one has “for both are infinite,” from Shakespeare, while the other reads, “forever and always,” a sentiment that is heartfelt and increasingly true as the years roll on. Our years together have hardly been all sweetness and light. After we had been together for some 25 of those years, Diana gave me an anniversary card that read, “Thank you for 16 wonderful years.” That was probably about right. I had been gone on preaching/teaching trips a vast number of times, leaving her often with two first small and rapidly growing children; she was their chief caregiver, and I was too often an interloper. And then there was the nearly one-year separation that we endured, which culminated in a reaffirmation of vows ceremony and our rededication to be together “forever and always.”

We have at least three grand celebrations planned to commemorate what for us is a momentous year. It begins with a long weekend in early August with immediate family. We will rent a house in some lovely spot to the north of LA, and we hope that both of Diana’s sisters and husbands will be able to join us, along with our son and two grandchildren. I have nothing to do with the planning of that event. However, two other trips are my purview; I tend to be the trip planner while Diana is the superb navigator once we are on our way. It works magnificently for us, this division of labor!

The second celebratory journey will be to Alaska. I should say that I am not planning this one completely, since a cruise company is handling the details. Diana and I are both lecturing on the cruise part of the schedule, which follows after five days on land. She and I will spend a few days around Seattle before the trip begins. We agreed to go on this trip at the instigation of some Dallas friends. Since the trip was announced some 40 other persons have signed up to go, many of whom are long-time acquaintances and friends of ours, many from our two decades in Dallas. On the actual date of our anniversary, we are scheduled to board the ship at Seward, along with all these familiar folk. What a grand bit of great good fortune it will be to have so many of these people to help our celebration on the day itself! We did not have that in mind when we agreed to lead the trip.

Then in September Diana and I will fly to Zurich, rent a car, and wend our way through Austria and Germany for three weeks. I have designed this trip from beginning to end, and I hope it will match both of our passionate anticipations.

And that, at last, brings me to the reason for this blog today: anticipation. The word has at least three quite distinct meanings. It may mean “to forestall, to intercept, to prevent.” By this is meant to anticipate the movements of an opponent and to defeat that movement, because one has gauged what that player will do and will try hard to block the desired movement of the opponent. “If she goes there, I will move there.” Any sport presents this challenge; even a brisk game of tic-tac-toe makes the case. Another meaning is to “hope, to expect.” “In anticipation of the arrival of Santa Claus, we hung up our Christmas stockings.” A third possible meaning is a sense of foreknowledge or precognition. “Because Einstein was able to anticipate the astonishing connections between light and energy, and to express those connections in one compact formula, he was known as one of the eminent scientists of the 20th century.” Each of these meanings, I would suggest, plays a role in our attempts to hear, understand, and act on the basis of our Christian faith.

At times, in the light of our faith, we anticipate problems and confusions in our beliefs and move to counteract those or to alter them to create a more valuable formulation. If, for example, our view of God runs into genuine human obstacles, then it will behoove us to anticipate this problem, and attempt to adjust our view to meet the difficulty. If we believe that God is author of all things in the universe, is omnipotent in the traditional formula, and if certain terrible things happen to us in our lives, we do well to anticipate that our traditional view may be inadequate and try to adjust our belief accordingly, lest we lose all sense of God in our lives.

The second meaning, to hope, stands at the heart of much of our belief. “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1). One could say that our upcoming celebratory trips are based on this meaning of anticipation. We anticipate, we hope, that nothing will impede these trips and that they will blessed with fabulous weather and helpful people all along the way. None of that is assured, of course, but we anticipate it nonetheless.

The third meaning, that of foreknowledge, is perhaps the most dangerous of the three. If we anticipate that God will act in a certain way, because we have weighed up all the possibilities based on what we know about God in our lives, we run the serious risk of being deeply disappointed. If my design of the trip to Europe is wholly grounded in my careful planning, rooted in my choice of routes and hotels and sights to see from the fantastic power of the Internet, my anticipation will not allow for chance happenings, foul weather, poor accommodations (despite the glittering photos on the website!), shuttered attractions, foul and angry people. I am hardly the Einstein of trip planning, and my anticipation of the trip may not at all lead us to constant pleasure and continuous ease and joy, based on an easily remembered formula. Yet, I do not wish to depart with a sense of anticipatory foreboding either! I hope the trip will be grand, yet I imagine that not every part of it will meet all of our expectations.

Is that not indicative of a realistic faith, too? I hope my belief is potent, and will get me through all of life’s turmoil and pleasure. Yet, I anticipate that my faith must never be static, but must be moveable and adaptable to life as I live it. As it is in my faith, so it must be in my upcoming celebratory trips. I anticipate with great joy what Diana and I are going to experience, and as long as she is with me, and we are together, whatever occurs will not be anything that can spoil our journey. 50 years together can anticipate that outcome, I am sure. So, wish us bon voyage, as we sail and fly and drive our way together across vast potions of the earth. Believe me, our anticipation is approaching fever pitch!