Josh Josh Josh Joshy Josh

My best friend is coming to visit this Thursday and his name is Josh. He’s flying in from Seattle with his wife, Callie, and will be hanging out with us for a week. My kid is named for him and I owe a debt of wisdom, knowledge, and irreverence to him so large for equity I’d need to offer him one of my two, well let’s go with lobes of my brain, yes lobes of my brain (or maybe I have more than two? Lobes I mean). Regardless of how many I have, I am quite excited about his impending arrival.

A mutual acquaintance of ours, one who is wont to refrain from vocalizing words but takes to the pen with great frequency, once wrote out, “Josh Josh Josh Josh Joshy Josh,” and with a wide grin gave it to Josh. That’s how I feel today. So overcome with giddy anticipation that I can’t think of anything to say or write but Josh. That word bears the meaning of accompaniment (through depression at different times for both of us), laughter (mostly at ourselves and the particular size/shape/color of our navels), shared grief (family loss) and anger (the day we shouted expletives, sitting in a car at Tully’s Coffee in Issaquah, at the radio man who announced President Bush’s decision to attack Iraq), joy (he’s Toby’s godfather), and the mundane (4:30 am opening shifts slinging espresso and holiday gift packs filled with chocolate covered cranberries that make you say, “yum, that was a good holiday”)

Now that my family and I left Seattle and Josh, we’re here at Luther Seminary and will very soon be leaving again first for internship and then for first call (presumably). And then maybe I’ll get to see Josh twice a year for a week while serving a congregation who-knows-where. Not to mention the relationships we’ve rekindled and established while spending years here. Is that crazy? Is it wise for us to be scattered far apart from each other? Well, you’ll make new friends and have text-reading groups to join with other pastors. Will I? Maybe. Well, your common vocation and the mission of the church will bind you together in solidarity. Will it? Ok. Well, you’ll be tested in the fires of loneliness and isolation. Well alright then. Well, you’ll have your spouse to be supportive. Good, because I know she was hoping to be my only friend. Well, you’ll have plenty of work to keep you busy anyway. Oh yeah, ok.

Josh is coming to visit. Josh Josh Josh Josh Joshy Josh.