Lead where you are

9.22.13

        I had fully anticipated that Sunday was going to be a "stay at home and barely get out of bed in your pajamas" day, but Alex had other ideas.

         I woke up about 7:30, and had felt like I slept pretty decently with the help of my drugs and ice pack strapped to my belly. Alex was up around 4 am since he was still adjusting to the time change between Afghanistan and Dallas.

         Around 8 AM is when it started- Alex started asking me if we were going to church. What? Didn't we just go to church yesterday? Didn't we just barely make it out of a harrowing trauma that we deserved a day to stay home and be lazy? Seriously. But Alex reminded me of what John had said the day before, that we didn't need to push away from God but draw near to him.

        Here's my honesty: I really didn't want to go, but I didn't want to cause a fight or get a guilt-trip lecture about not going. So I threw on a dress and got ready to go to church. My parents were still staying with us, and our movement towards the door made them get ready and join us as well.

        Two desperately important things happened at church that day: the first involves a song written by the amazingly talented writers at our church, and the second involves a guest speaker.

       First, the song that was sung that morning in church: (download it here)

Making Me Holy- Hope Fellowship Original

What can separate

Me from you

You’re my covering

I Cant be moved

No height no depth can Come between

And death has no hold on me

I stand redeemed

Your love is uncontainable

Your grace is unstoppable

And it’s making me whole

It’s making me holy

Your word is all-powerful

Breathing life into dust

And it’s making me whole

It’s making me holy

Whoa whoa its making me holy

Whoa whoa its making me holy

Take my weakness

Reveal your might

And do the impossible

With my life

To show your mercy

To be you’re light

I give my life away

Cause I cant deny

Your love is uncontainable

Your grace is unstoppable

And it’s making me whole

It’s making me holy

Your word is all-powerful

Breathing life into dust

And it’s making me whole

It’s making me holy

Don’t stop don’t stop

Making me holy

          I have always loved the way that worship songs are able to express so simply what I feel inside, and this song definitely spoke to me that Sunday morning. 

          There was a guest speaker that Sunday, and I have to admit my initial reaction was disappointment that John wasn't going to be teaching. However, the service was about Jeremiah 29:11 which says, "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord. 'Plans to prosper and not to harm you, to give you hope and a future.'" First off, this verse in and of itself was applicable to where I was that Sunday after everything we had been through. But then, the speaker decides to back up to read Jeremiah 29:4-10, and he talked about the context that this popular verse is found in. There's no way that I can reiterate the message in a compact way, so instead I'll do a link:

Lead where you are 9/22/13

         I encourage each of you to take a few minutes out of your day and listen to this message. He talks about not getting caught up in your situation so much that you forget your purpose and who put you there. He also said, "Even if your situation is somewhere you never thought you'd be..." Yes, that would be me, 100%. I never thought I would be here. I never thought I would have to deal with what we've been dealing with. But it comforted me so much to hear God's word speak so clearly through our church, and it reminded me again that I serve a living God, not just an idea from 2,000 years ago.