Yesterday I witnessed a biggie in my world and it made me reflect on just about the biggest thing that God allowed into our life this past year. But first, yesterday....
Rewind to a brief history of our wonderful church. ClearView has been in the area for about five years, formed because a group of locals wanted a place to worship Christ without all of the rigamaroo that goes along with a typical church. I am sure that I have mentioned our pastor lived two hours away and was a pastor there, then would drive two hours south to be our pastor on Sunday evenings. A change in his life made it impossible to do that for a year, so we watched a video feed of him preaching for that year. Or maybe I should say, about 20 of us decided to dig our heals in , do the work, and stay because we loved our church, we loved our pastor, and we all just had a teeny tiny inkling that God was on to something here. Our county has no other church quite like ours and we had the faith that, if we put the work in, God was going to show up. Even in a middle school band room, with plastic chairs, He was going to show up.
At the end of that year, God showed up in a big way. He led our pastor Roger and his wife Carol to move to our county FULL TIME, a scenario that was not even possible at the beginning of our difficult year. About seven weeks ago he became our pastor full time, no more video feeds, no more long travels for them. They actually live less than two miles from us and I imagine the only move that could make me more excited than that is if my own parents moved that close to us. So God showed up about seven weeks ago, but still, we didn't know what would happen. Did I mention a band room instead of a church? Plastic chairs instead of pews?
Yesterday, on our seventh Sunday as a so called "real" church, I joked that those setting out the chairs were certainly being optimistic. I had helped set out the first forty chairs, but then someone else came along and just kept adding more and more rows. I told them they had the 'Field of Dreams' theory, if they set out the chairs, then the people would come. The next thing I knew those plastic chairs were full, even the extra ones.
The special Christmas praise and worship was led by TEENAGERS (no really, you don't understand, we have never had enough teenagers to lead the praise and worship part of the service), one being our ninth grader playing a piano solo of "Carol of the Bells" (because its one of her momma's favorites), as well as another ninth grader accompanying the Richmond twins on guitar with "I Saw Three Ships" and "Away in a Manger". There were little ones in the nursery. I don't know how many in childrens church (no really, you don't understand, there were Sundays where we didn't even need to offer these two services because we didn't need them). The hospitality table was loaded down. The message was awesome! And God, well, He is so good.
I am going to tell it like it is, that year of video feed was as difficult as could be. Some Sundays were great and joyful, but some Sundays it was difficult to even get out of bed and just show up. People left and with every person that left, those determined to make the church work had to stop for a moment and regroup. I can't speak for everyone, but I know I would think, "Wait, are we really doing the right thing here? Do they see some type of future failure that maybe we just don't have eyes to see right now?" Then another Sunday would come along and we would plow through, being there for one another and honoring God and our pastor by doing what needed to be done until God decided to show us what He had in store for us. He was good during that difficult year too, because He was doing a work in us that none of us could even see at the time. Mostly, we just saw that it was difficult.
But boy did He ever show up yesterday!!!!! The following passage was a small part of our sermon yesterday, but it fits right into what God showed me as I looked around that band room in amazement at what God was doing. (Again, I use The Message in a lot of cases because it is just easier for me to understand.)
Galatians 5:22 - The Message
22-23 But
what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives,
much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection
for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness
to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a
conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find
ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in
life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.
We are called to wait upon the Lord. This is the third time in my life ( the third time I have recognized) He has shown me the blessings that multiply when we wait for Him amidst the things that just are not easy or comfortable for us. Sometimes things just don't seem to fit or fall into place, but oh those blessings when we wait for Him to show us instead of following emotions and feelings. God doesn't rule through our emotions! He guides our lives through our faith in Him and our trust that He is out to do what is best for us, even when we can't see it for ourselves!
Well, my time is short today and I have run out of time to write about that one HUGE thing that happened this year, so until tomorrow, I will call this part one of two!!!! Until then, enjoy my second favorite Christmas carol & Merry Christmas everyone!!!!!
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