Director’s Discourse

May 2010

"Watch Your Wake"

As you pass the outer channel marker into almost any marina, you’ll see a sign nailed to a piling with big red letters on a white background that says: “WATCH YOUR WAKE.” Every boater knows this. When you’re at sea it’s not enough just to look where you’re going, you also have to think about where you’ve been. It’s that way with life. What we leave behind is something people are thankful for, or something people grumble about.

Bill and Dee Nord know about ?wakes.? They kept a boat on Lake Minnetonka for 28 years and are familiar with those ?Watch Your Wake? signs. These two old boaters visited my office a few weeks ago to say, “We’re getting to a point in our lives where we want to think about what we’re leaving behind. It would be good if there was something nice people could point to that would remind them of us.” Then, Bill and Dee offered to pay for one of the shares of the CES elevator project. It was a big gift. But there’s more to it – Bill and Dee would like you to join them so their gift can go even further. They’re willing to match your donation to the elevator project, dollar for dollar, up to $65,000! Together, you and the Nords can generate $130,000 – over half the cost of the elevator. Meals on Wheels, and other generous donors, will make up the difference. People with disabilities will never again have to struggle to get into the building. Faithful volunteers won’t have to struggle with palates of canned goods, weighing thousands of pounds, to get them into the pantry.

CES’s Development Team has been encouraging the CES family to think about what we leave behind. It is a question I try to reflect on at the end of every day, and as I get on in years. Our presence can either be helpful, or harmful. I suppose most of the time, it will be something in between.

How about you. . .as you think about this day of life - what have you left behind? What will your legacy be?

Are you watching your wake?

Pastor Mark Peterson