6 Months

It has been more than 6 months since I've posted anything on this blog.  That is pretty strange. It's not that the Lord hasn't been teaching me things. I've learned so very much in the last six months, but it has looked different.

It's been every day learning, not globe-trotting-world-travelling-disease-fighting learning.

I've also learned a lot about privacy and guarding my heart and thoughts by writing them in a journal instead of the internet (more people should do that).

But to give you an update, I've been learning to know the Lord's delight.  I've been learning to feel His love in a different way.  I've been rejoicing in my unique gifting and seeing its deficiencies and then getting to see how my brothers' and sisters' gifts make up for my lack in this beautiful thing called the Church and how all of our lack covered by Christ.

We are a broken, messy people leaning on Christ to unite us and make us like-minded.  The Holy Spirit binds us together whether we are engineers or artists, rich or poor, men or women: We are united as a body in Christ.  How beautiful is that! The God of the universe cares about a whole bunch of sinners in Savannah, GA. Praise Him! He has blessed us in such abundance and through a small Southern Baptist congregation dedicated to the Word I have seen the fruits of the Spirit grow in the lives of many people. I have come to a deeper understanding of the gifting of the Spirit.

All of this has come through the working of the Spirit through a beautiful little church in the heart of Savannah.

I don't think I quite realized how much Bull Street had become my home until I left Savannah for the better part of seven months.  Every Sunday that passed was that much harder, I missed home.  Now I am getting ready to leave again and I think it might have to be kicking and screaming.

I don't want to go. I don't want to leave the one church I've found that I finally feel at home. I don't want to leave the one place where I know my brothers and sisters as my own family. I don't want to leave my little congregation. I don't want to go.

But I will.  I will go because I know that even in the pain of leaving that the next thing will be beautiful. There will be blessing. There will be suffering and all to the glory of God!  God called me to begin seminary at Southeastern.  Right now it doesn't seem quite real, it seems on the edge of reality.  It seems like an automatic response.  I just didn't think my time in Savannah would be over this soon.

But here it is, coming to a close.  In two weeks, I'll begin a month of travel. When I return, I'll have a few weeks of goodbyes here in Savannah and move up to Raleigh.

How did the end come so quickly?

But I do not despair.  Though my closeness, my everyday-ness, my membership will be ending in Savannah, I know the Lord has plans for me.  He has called me forward and has been teaching me so much.  He has been teaching me to rely on Him, even when it hurts.  Sometimes choosing righteousness and choosing Christ feels like the most painful thing.  But it's painful like washing asphalt out of a wound.  It hurts to scrub away the grit, but it is to the benefit of healthy healing.

Ephesians 1:3-14, NLT

"All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. 4Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. 6So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. 7He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. 8He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.

9God has now revealed to us his mysterious plan regarding Christ, a plan to fulfill his own good pleasure. 10And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth.11Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.

12God’s purpose was that we Jews who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God.13And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. 14The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him."