Things Change

It is always sad to close a chapter in your life, because it means that things change: However, it is good to move at the will of God~Pastor Bobby Thompson, [Former District Superintendent West Fla Assemblies of God, Current Pastor, Elevation Life Church.]

The above quote is from a man I barely know, whom I have only met a handful of times in the last 3 weeks. Even though he tweeted it many months ago I could have posted it word for word myself as a commentary on my own life in the last few weeks.

A chapter in my own life closed in November 2011 but really, the beginnings of the closure go back to around 2009...My husband told me at that time that he felt as though our season at our church had come to a close. My beloved church where we all got saved, we all thrived in the presence of God, saw miracles, friends became family, leadership skills and spiritual gifts were developed, and we were taught how to love people unconditionally, that serving others was so much more rewarding than serving ourselves, and God's love, mercy and grace endure forever. This was our church home for 11 years under the leadership of 2 wonderful and anointed pastors. I could not even wrap my mind around what my husband was saying. So we waited.

My husband extended grace to me in the form of time. He gave me as much as I needed. No pressure, no criticism, no rush, just time to pray, time to assess my own "hearing," from God and time to discern. He knew he was right but did not force the issue. I thought he COULD be right but I was much too emotionally entangled in our church to see or hear clearly.

And so time passed..and his patience did not wane. Some doors closed, some doors opened. People I loved left and people I came to love eventually arrived on the scene. And still Bill waited, lovingly firm in his assessment and unwaveringly loving towards my difficulty in seeing things the same.

Finally in mid-November 2011 I came into agreement with him, our children had felt the same way for a while already. I was the last holdout, evidently. What changed?

Well.....I guess the answer to that is ME. Our church is and was a wonderful church with wonderful people in it. There are opportunities to minister and give of yourself, ample times to receive ministry, the praise and worship is lovely, the pastor and his wife loving and fun to be around....In particular, I have to say the pastor has been very good to me and my family and I love him and his wife very much.

But no matter how much I love the people at the church I knew it was God's will as soon as I came into agreement with Bill. I felt relief, sadness, excitement, and unified with my husband for the first time in a really long time. We began to pray and ask God where we were to go, what were we to do? We've never "looked" for a church before. Heck we weren't looking for a church when we found this one. I went to a play there and God ambushed me. My daughter got saved on the spot, then me, then Bill and our son after that....So we were clueless. 

The hardest part was telling my best friend. We had founded and shared leadership of many ministries in the church and I knew it would be so hard. And it was. She cried, I cried, but she told me it was the right decision and that she knew it deep inside. She had been my mentor, best friend, sister and confidante for 11 years and while we knew that our place of worship was not what tied us together, it was still difficult to imagine not worshiping the Lord in the same body of Christ.

Through a lot of prayer Bill and I agreed that there were 2 churches that we felt the Lord presented to us as His options and we are attending both as we wait to hear from God. Both are wonderful and filled with wonderful people. Now it's up to God as we walk in obedience.

It is sad to close this chapter in our lives. It is good to move at the will of God knowing that we left when we were all in agreement as a family. We left fully in the will of God, not angry or offended at anyone or anything, excited at what God is leading us through and to. Being in the will of God outweighs any sorrow, fear, or sadness at departing our first real home church. It also means that even if we don't know where we're going, God does, and that's all that matters.  

Ecclesiastes 3

A Time for Everything

 ¹ For everything there is a season,
      a time for every activity under heaven.

Blessings, y'all!

Robin