Crank up the Wayback Machine

Kelsey and I did back-to-back breakout sessions today at the Children's Equipping Center conference. As usual, Kelsey went first and left me wondering "Why do I continue to follow this act?"

After my session, a fellow approached me with a goofy grin and said those words every public speaker dreads: "Do you remember me?"

Pause for awkwardness...

"uh...where would I know you from?" I asked. Then, having heard a slight accent, I guessed, "North Dakota?"

"Yeah, from back in North Dakota....".

I stared at this guy hard, then ka-boom! I had a flood of memories. I remembered almost everything. We had gone to college together at TBC our freshman year. He lived on the 3rd floor of Kessler - I was on the first. His room mate was Randy Lindgren. He had two vehicles at school - a monster sized 4x4 Ford truck and a Smoky & the Banditesque black Trans Am complete with t-tops and golden screaming chicken on the hood. I remembered that he was from Wisconsin where his dad owned a huge dairy farm. I remembered everything.

Except his name.

Finally, it came to me - Mark Edwards. Twenty years ago, Mark was one of my 3 or 4 best friends my freshman year. He never returned my sophomore year, and by Christmas I'd transferred to CBC anyway.

We had great fun catching up. Since 1986, he's made and lost a fortune farming on a huge scale, conquered a brain tumor, and is laser-focused on ministry right now.

I have been horrible at keeping in contact with people - even people who have been very important in my life. I think I've gotten discouraged when making the phone calls that never get returned and kind of given up. Last weekend I felt convicted over it and called 3 people who I really did care about but hadn't talked to in some time. I'm done waiting. It feels too right to reconnect.

Good to see you today, Mark. Not sure if you read this up in Cheeseland or not. Either way, it was great to see you.