God's goodness

If there is one thing in my life I am sure of, it is that I am at the church where I am meant to be. I was raised going to a Methodist church in the city where I grew up, but after high school, they didn't have a college-age class for me to attend. I quickly found out that I didn't belong in the class with young marrieds, or young married couples with small children, so I just quit going. While this was the case, since that is one of the churches from my childhood and the only one we attended during my teenage years, it still holds a special place in my heart.

I started attending my current church with a friend who was away at college but didn't want to go to Sunday school by herself on the weekends she was home. At her urging, along with the fact that I knew I needed to be attending somewhere, I went. Initially, I wasn't totally comfortable in such a large church, but I still went with her the weekends she was home. Since that was all I was doing spiritually, it was obvious that I was just going through the motions because I knew I needed to be going somewhere. I loved the church and the preacher, but with this backwards personality that I have sometimes (!!), I just didn't know how to break in and make friends.

Unfortunately, it took my grandmother's death in 1988 to get my attention. I LOVED my grandmother! My dad is one of 18 kids, 15 living now. He's the second in line now, so with that many children, his youngest sister, my aunt, is only two years older than me. They lived out in the country....and when I say country, I mean 'country,' especially back then. I would go down there many summers and spend a week doing nothing but playing with my aunt. We would play games, ride bikes (on a dirt road of all things), ride on the trailer that was attached to a tractor to go feed the hogs every night (my aunt and I would try to push that slop all over each other...YUCK!), catch butterflies, just all the things that make childhood fun. My grandmother, even though she still had several children still at home, would always dote on me a bit. I loved it. I also loved the fact, and still do, that people who knew her would say that I looked just like she did when she was younger. I still hear that, even to this day. I think that's pretty cool because I loved my grandmother. Anyway, unfortunately, it took her death in 1988 to really get my attention spiritually. Although I was saved at a retreat as a teenager, I wasn't living like it and knew in my heart that my grandmother's death was the shake-up that I needed to make it happen. I wasn't doing anything bad, I just wasn't living the Christ-centered life that I should have been.

I started getting serious about my church attendance and my spiritual walk. I started looking at this life in light of eternity and knew the changes that I needed to make. I started putting a bit more effort into the relationships I had at this church and the friendships that I was making along the way. As creeped out as I am about being in front of people, it still took me until 1990 or 1991 to go forward and join this church, and even at that, I had to sit through the service with a friend who was a counselor because I knew she'd hold me accountable! I joined the choir in 1991, I believe, and except for a few months leave of absence in 1996, I have been in there since that date.

I am grateful for parents who took me and my sister to church every Sunday. We didn't always stay for 'big church,' but we did attend Sunday school and my sister and I were both involved in the youth group when we got to that age. I learned the basics there, but I feel that probably 80-90 % of my spiritual growth has come from my current church. God has used the preachers, members, classes, different ministies, etc to speak to me. He has given me some huge disappointments and hard times since I've been there, but also some fabulous friends and some of the most heartfelt relationships of my life. I just have no doubt that this is where I am supposed to be. Even the bad times have been times of great growth. Funny how that works, isn't it?

With all that being said, we have been without a pastor since last November. We have had some great preachers in the interim. Our search committee has been working on it and on Sunday, June 8, it was announced that Dr Mel Blackaby was their choice for our church. He was here over the weekend for various 'get to know you' things, but yesterday morning, he preached, then last night, he and his wife, Gina, gave their testimonies. I sat there listening to them, many times with tears in my eyes, because of the things they were sharing about their lives and how God has worked in them, but also that God, in all His faithfulness and goodness has chosen to bring them here as leadership for our church! I have a book that he co-wrote with his dad, Henry Blackaby, titled 'Experiencing God Together' that I've started reading again with new eyes since he's going to be our pastor. We still have several weeks before they get here, but these are exciting days and I cannot WAIT to see what God has in store.

I have no doubt I am in the church where I am meant to be. God is good!