Pastor Lincoln was talking about how so many in the 'church' need to take the cross from the back of their minds and let it pervade our lives more than just a sunday school lesson or some piece of Christian knowledge and doctrine.
Mercy and I started talking later that night about how many ways God has just shown His amazing faithfulness and unending love to us over the past 8 months. I mean it has been incredible the ways we have been lost and weary in desperation, in unemployment, in the facade of control in the midst of the turmoil. Every step of the way my Father God has held us and seen us through. He has made a way for us.
The first was the friendship of Matt Lawson giving a guy who is better at writing sermons than anything else a job as an electricians assistant. I couldnt find a job. My degree didnt help me, my experience with people, with talking and writing, with teaching, with managing- everything I had accumulated over 8 years in ministry and college could not help me find a job. But a brother in Christ could.
When I was still looking for jobs to be able to move out of my father in laws house- every job from Target to life insurance, from marketing to ministry, 2 months of constant job searching brought me nothing. But a weekend when we stayed at Randall and Sandra's Stewarts house- i scanned through the Sundays classifieds, called a number and got a job in less than a week doing customer service for Medicare.
And then i lost my job. The contract ended. 2 weeks after my baby girl was born, I was trying to get an unemployment check. And God used a long time friend of Cheryl Vaughan to keep my families head afloat.
For 3 weeks I stayed at home. For probably the most amazing three weeks of my life I got to help the best wife and mom I know take care of our daughter. I got to spend time with her, rock her to bed. And every moment of that, the being peed on, the spit up, the 3am crying are moments that I would never give back for a simple job. God gave me a gem in that moment and I love Him for it.
And then He gave me another job doing customer service. One that I only could have gotten because of the road He has brought us on. With PAI, a subsidy of BCBS, I have a chance of going from temp to full time. And God has shown us that its not the paycheck that matters. I almost quit this job to work with Verizon, but gave it up because it would ask me to sacrifice my time with my family and I cant live without spending time with my girls.
This week we are going to be signing papers for a house we are going to rent in Cayce. A house that we can have family and friends over. That we can share in the blessings God has given us.
Each step of the way God has made a way for me and my family. Each time my pride and my thoughts of control creep up, our Heavenly Father has reminded me of my dependance on His grace and His love. Love like we have been give from people like Mack and Erin Goodwin and the great greek devine foods! Or the constant love of a brother and companion of Claude Schumpert who has too often let me back out of a 6:30 breakfast!
I look back on this journey of ours and I see the smiles and lives of my moms from the office, or those old warm hugs of the early crowd, the faithful joy of our leaders. I see the prayers lifted up from friends and even now hear their stories.
I see the stories unraveling, like the one where God took people of our past and placed them in our path the first Sunday Mercy and I ever went to Sunday school together. A friend of our family from when I wasnt even born yet met us outside our class and a friend from 12 years ago recognized me in the fellowship. Just so we would feel comfortable. Just so we would feel confident.
And God keeps making a way.
There are so many more things I could point out and say There! There is God at work. So many more friends who have come along side us and shown us God's love. Uncle Mike and Aunt Brittany and the Thursday night breakfast. Booth and Bones Forever! The beautiful healing and victory in my sister Michelle as the Favorite Aunt and Uncle Daddy move into a new house with Dylan and Audrey!
God keeps making a way. The stories veer off like branches of a vine- spreading out to bear more fruit and show more beauty. And that is exactly what I have forgotten recently. I have had my head down, focused on me and mine, fearing what could be or may become, fighting off what might have been. But that is what Easter is about I guess more than anything. The refreshing of the saints, the wave of focus to remind us of who we truly are and what we are all about. And that is lifting up the name of Jesus. The best thing that has happened to me and the best thing that keeps happening.
In my Easter reflections I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for loving my God. May the joy of our salvation wash over us like His blood, may the light of the Father guide our ways, and may the Holy Spirit kick us in the butt to remind us to shout praises to our Good God until we are so caught up in love we have brought Heaven to Earth.
