By tomorrow at this time I will have ended my 3 year career with Barney. I must admit it’s somewhat of a bittersweet feeling in my gut. We’ve had so many breaks on tour it has been difficult to differentiate this from any other but I think it’s finally beginning to sink in that this is it. I just spent the past few hours writing some thank you/goodbye notes to some of my castmates. Some I’ve only known for 4 months, some for the entire 3 year run but they all kind of feel like family. These people have not only been my coworkers, but they have been my friends and roomates for all this time so I suspect it’s only natural that I feel the way I do.
It has been a good three years and something I wouldn’t trade for the world, but I believe the time is right for us to depart. We didn’t plan for it to end like this, none-the-less it must end sometime and it seems natural that this be it.
On the horizon of things to come there is nothing but uncertainty but I will face that uncertainty with faith that God will carry us through whatever it may be. For now I look forward to the coming days when I am reunited with my family, my church home, and my physical home. I can’t wait to hug my nieces and nephew and just give them the assurance that I’m home to stay this time.
I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ll say it again…there’s a song that I like to listen to right before I go home…it just reminds me of how content I am in Winchester, only in Andrew Peterson’s case it’s “Shiloh”. Anyway, here are the lyrics:
Rickety fence and a rocking chair
The smell of my father’s pipe
Cackling goose in the summer air
The garden is green and ripe
Suddenly now I’m far away
Even if in my mind
I’m listening to my mama saying
“If you can find the time
“Come home, come home and rest awhile
Come home, come home and rest awhile
Get on home to Shiloh”
The farther I have wandered off
The fonder I have grown, Shiloh
Yeah, all the while I find a smile
Thinkin’ about my home
The autumn breeze is calling me away
Calling me home to Shiloh
Over the ocean the soldier sailed
The battle is finally won
His mother is pressed up against the railing
Trying to find her son
Suddenly now she sees a face
Easy to recognize
It’s been years to wait for the sweet embrace
Holding him as she cries
“You’d better get on home to Shiloh”
The farther that you wander off
The fonder you will grow, Shiloh
Yeah, all the while he found a smile
Thinkin’ about his home
A sweet reunion coming through in waves
Calling him home to Shiloh
I’ve been thinkin’ about my home
I’ve never been but I will, I know
Meadow green and the river wide
Valley deep and the mountain high
The saints of old are singing now (Shiloh)
My ears are ringing with the sound (Shiloh)
But greater still, as clear as day (Shiloh)
I can hear my Savior saying
I can hear my Savior saying
I can hear my Savior say
“Come home, come home and rest awhile
Come home, come home and rest awhile”
Better get on home to Shiloh