god's timing

If any of you out there are my fellow Christians, then you know a thing or two about God's timing. I find that my own personal experiences with this is the best way to explain to someone (specifically non-believers) why I believe. No one can deny personal examples of how God has worked in your life. They might not choose to believe it for themselves, but they can't tell you that your experiences aren't real. So every time I feel like a blatant "God Thing" has happened in my life, I try to journal about it or store it somewhere in my brain to pull out when I want to share my own version of the good news.

One of these examples came to me over the weekend. A month or so ago, I put "Searching for Sunday" by Rachel Held Evans on hold at my local library. Since it's a fairly new book and she is pretty popular among the Christians, it took weeks for it to get to my name on the list. It just so happens I got my turn to read it when my pastor made the official announcement that my church is closing.

The book's tagline is "loving, leaving, and finding the church". I knew it was about Rachel's experience of leaving her church and trying to find a new one, but I didn't know that there would be a big chunk about how she and a few friends started their own church... and how it failed after just one year. (Side note: my pastor and I have had many conversations about how we will not consider the closing of our church a "failure", but that's the word Rachel chooses to use in her book.) While reading about her experience and struggling through my own feelings about the place where I've lead worship, felt community, and attended for five years, I found myself comforted by her thoughts on the subject. Particularly this part:

"Even our unsuccessful church plant managed to produce some fruit of the Spirit along the way. We baptized, broke bread, preached the word, and confessed our sins. We created a sanctuary where people told the truth without fear. We worked through our differences with care and grace and we learned, perhaps the hard way, the church isn't static. It's not a building, or a denomination, or a nonprofit organization. Church is a moment in time when the kingdom of God draws near, when a meal, a story, a song, an apology, and even a failure is made holy by the presence of Jesus among us and within us."

The things she lists are so true for me and my church, and that's how I know that our little church plant was never a failure. We will all take something away from it that we learned and that helped us grow. And where God's timing comes in is how I could have bought the book months ago, or gotten it from the library a few weeks ago, but reading it then would not have been as important to me as it is right now. In the midst of having to face my church shutting down and struggling with what to do next, both as an attendee of church and a worship leader, I needed to hear Rachel's words right in this moment. Not weeks or months ago, but now. I believe that God knew it, and I believe in His timing as a testimony to share.

If you would like to watch the video announcement my pastor made about our closing, it's available here.

changes

image via google

That phrase is something Laura and I have started saying regularly... and often in a silly way just to laugh ("burritos, am i right?!"). If nothing else, it puts a bright spot in the day. Say it to yourself today, I guarantee it will make you feel better!

In other news. change is my middle name these days. It's basically covering all the bases of my life: 

1. Home: Laura went and got herself a boyfriend! He's great and nice and I was already friends with him, so I approve. So excited for them! Heart eyes for days.

 2. Work: I am switching teams at work. At first I was not particularly thrilled seeing as this is the first time in a year that I've actually enjoyed my job and I finally have a decent manager, but then she told us she was leaving the team too, so... bring it on.

 3. Church: We made the announcement yesterday that my church is closing its doors at the end of September. This is necessary but really not the easiest thing. I've been the worship leader there for the past five years. I will miss my team and the community.

4.  Friends: A lot of my friends are moving away. Texas, England, Hawaii... I'm happy for all of their exciting opportunities but why do they all have to leave me?!

They say life is never-ending learning experience... I'm certainly being tested on that lately. 

tunes


 A couple of songs I've been playing around the house that have been stuck in my head. Particularly in the guest room on some mornings before the roommate and I head to brunch.


Hot August

image via google

Life is an ever-eventful thing, don't you think? There hasn't been a boring moment for me yet this summer. I've had beach trips and brunches, trips to my childhood county fair and concerts, the most recent of which was Saturday (see picture above). I've been going to the Hot August Music Festival for four years now, and it's always a musician's dream. I've been getting my fill of Chris Thile with Nickel Creek being there last year and Punch Brothers this year. But the gem of the night was seeing Counting Crows for (I think) the sixth time. I was there with my friend Meghan, who I used to see CC with every summer for a long while, so that was very special for us. To top it off, Meghan's friend was washing his hands in the bathroom with Adam right next to him... and unfortunately he said that Adam was kind of a grump. But after the show started he seemed to loosen up a bit after almost dropping the mic on his face while holding the stand up in the air. (He caught it and kept singing like magic, don't worry.) We had the most amazing time, despite the sun being so hot and me sliding/falling down a small hill at one point because grass + my flip flops didn't do me any favors. If you're in the Baltimore-ish area, I highly recommend this festival every summer! Amazing music, food, drinks, and friends.