Joy in the Journey

I feel like I need to update my friends, especially my friends on the Central Coast, on my current emotional and vocational health. As the beggar in "Holy Grail" says, "I'm feeling better...."

Recently, through a phone call from a 30-something who attends the same church I do, I was reminded that God continues to use me, even when I'm not in my "sweet spot". (By the way, can anyone point me to the Bible verse that says we get to work in our sweet spot. I can find the ones on faithfulness, responsibility and dependence, but I haven't located the one that promises we will always get to do the things we love in the way we want to.) In the call, he mentioned how God had used my work with the current elder board and my work with he and his peers as a master stroke in moving the church in the direction they need to go. My work with the elders created a group that the young guys would be willing to be part of and my work with the young guys helped the elders see that these were guys worth having on the board.

The funny part is that I didn't put the two ideas together. I saw the need to help the elders do a better job of "elding" and I saw the need to come alongside the young men, to encourage them to take on responsibilities within the church. Now that I've been helped to look back on what has happened, I see the wisdom of "working both sides", but at the time I just saw two needs I could help meet. Part of me wishes I had been smart enough to have thought this through and worked this plan. The other part of me is very grateful that I didn't, because then I can, with total honesty say, "This was a God-thing."

So, for my friends, I'm doing well... in spite of myself. Thanks for praying.

Blessed Dialogue

As I have had the privilege of preaching throughout the District, I have come to realize that it is not "preaching" I miss so much as it is the dialogue that takes place when the preacher and the congregation have experienced life together between Sundays. Don't get me wrong, I still love to teach in these churches. I love to open God's Word, praying that those who listen and the one who teaches will be blessed as they come to realize more of who God is and what He has done. But I miss looking into the faces of people I know and love and realizing that God has brought us to this place to hear what He has to say. My understanding of God's providence tells me that this is happening even when I don't know the people in a local church. It is the same thing that happens when I find myself in a conversation with people I don't know or don't know well. We communicate and we learn. But what is missing is the common vocabulary that develops among friends. The way we can talk short hand about life and God because we have shared life together. The "inside jokes," as it were, that grow out of common experiences. As I settle into a new church, this will come. But for now, I connect with that which is common to all, and long for the specific connections that bind us together in this great, collective relationship with God.