Lech Acharai

As time draws in and April comes to a close, a great and interesting your will come to a close;
a new milestone, a marker to evaluate life.


Still cannot believe it.

A little over a year ago, I graduated from college as one helluva engineer, moved to a new city, a new culture, became the principal engineer on a ground breaking project in advanced drilling technology, and travelled to Norway, West Texas, Oman, Ohio, and Dubai.

Bless God for he sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.



Soccer, oh how I've missed you.

This has been a year of observation, eyes and ears straining to see and to hear;
Soaking up all of the experiences and the tastes of new cities, new cultures.
Listening to stories and ideas and beliefs of people from all walks of life all over the world.
Kicking a soccer ball with guys from Lebanon, Egypt, Algeria, India, and the US.
Discussing God during cool summer nights with a glass of fine whiskey in hand.



Fire grilled steaks, the finest whiskey, and real community on a cold winter evening. Is there anything better?

All the while holding back my own stories and ideas and beliefs, even from my closest of friends.
I don't have a solid answer why I have been holding back; why I have been listening to conversations and rarely joining and adding to discussions.

Any one who knows me well quickly realizes that the move to Houston has definitely been hard on me and still continues to be. I am a man who keeps close friends and values my people above everything else. I am a man who needs close friends and family, people to share the joys and the trials of life, people that make me want to be a better man, people who make me walk after our Messiah, people who hold me accountable to just that.

Why am I closing myself off to that?

Bless God, I have had an unbelievable amount of opportunity to go places, do things, and meet people beyond my wildest dreams especially in my early twenties!



Preparing for a nighttime SCUBA dive with Andre and Ben.

But what's the point if I cannot share those experiences and lessons with even my closest friends?

 

Recently, I found the following quote,

 

"The people that you should keep around are the ones that should make you feel capable."

 



That resonated so deeply within me and got the gears inside me head cranking. This is a quality that everyone should strive for in their friends. However, I'll take it one step further, these same people should not only make you feel capable, but push you into being a better person.

That idea brings up all sorts and thoughts and questions.
Who are the people in my life that encourage and support me to be better person?
What does that sort of person and friendship look like?
Are the people that I currently surround myself with those kind of people?

But those thoughts and questions lead to even deeper thoughts and profound questions.
Who is responsible to be that type of person?
Is there a select few the fuel us all?
Or is this the type of person that we should all strive to be?
Someone who encourages and supports and pushes our friends to be better people?

That leads me to one final thought and question,
How in the world can I look for and expect to make close friends that push me to be a better person if I am not willing or cannot enable them to excel also?

Multiple teachings of Jesus come to mind, the central of which that I choose to live my life by is this,
"Love God with all your heart, all your mind and all your strength.
And love your neighbor as yourself."

This reiterates the Golden Rule that we were all taught as children in the US,
"Do unto others what you would have them do unto you."

Be that person that makes other people capable.
Be that person that pushes other other people to be better people.
Be that person that makes other people want to live Shalom.



Late night shenanigans with Andrew and Todd.

You know, something that I have learned about loving other people comes from my closest friendships that I have held for years and hope to continue for years to come. All of these friendships have one thing in common.

We support eachother.
We encourage eachother.
We trust eachother.
We hold nothing against eachother.
We call eachother out when we are out of line.
We push eachother to be better people.

So, why then am I still quiet? Why then am I still holding back from building those relationships with new people in a new city? Why then am I shutting myself off?

That takes me back to my story, the story of this last year.

Essentially, since graduating, I have got to work and do and go and see all these amazing things, meet amazing people, and experience amazing culture; I truly have lived Solomon's words and he is absolutely right.

It is just dust in the wind.

Though, we commonly interpret these words to mean that everything is meaningless without God, which is absolutely true, but it isn't the whole picture. It isn't the whole story.

 

A discussion that one of my best friends from college and I recently had boiled down to this:

What is the point of having money and blessings if you have no one to share them with?

What is the point of having knowledge and experience if you can't share it?

 

The bigger picture that Solomon was getting at is that you can have all of the money and extravagant experiences that you can ever desire but without God and without blessing people because of it, it is meaningless.

 

So, why then am I still quiet?

 

When I first moved to Texas, I knew no one. I still know very few people in the community. I have been quiet because I want to hear their stories, their thoughts, and their beliefs. I want to find people who truly have a passion for loving God and other people. I want to find people who, even though they make mistakes, they pick up the pieces together and push each other to be better people, capable of great things.

 

I don't want to share the details of my story because I am not important. I would rather hear and see other people's stories because they are. 

 

I don't want to share the glamour and the raggedy edges; I want to hear and support others in theirs. 

 

I am quiet because when I share my story, I use words that express my value and my importance.

I am quiet because I behave like a nerd trying to prove his "coolness" to the popular kids.

I am quiet because I am terrible at encouraging, and supporting strangers to be better people.

I am quiet because I don't want God's blessings to make other people jealous.

Going back to where I am now, if there is one thing that I have learned, it is this:
I love God and others because He loves us, but
the freakin' value of other people in our lives is tremendous.

Iron truly does sharpen iron.

So...   What next?

Brings me back to the title of this blog, "Lech Acharai."
That's what rabbi's of the first century world would say to prespective disciples, meaning that the new disciple has what it takes to become like the rabbi.

In English, we translate it as "Come, follow me."
However, it is more correctly translated as "Walk after me."

Jesus said this to the disciples, which by the first century religious community or "the church" deemed as not good enough. They couldn't become a rabbi since they didn't measure up. But Jesus, told them that they could, not only be a rabbi, but be like the Messiah himself. All he says is "Walk after me." And he still says that to us today.

So walk with me, and let's walk after our Rabbi, the Messiah himself.