Last night it was a joy to attend Flood Summer Nights and reconnect with the community that I have intentionally stepped away from these past few weeks as a desperate effort to revive my soul, rest my ailing body and reconnect with the Holy Spirit that lives within me.
With the dead of summer looming, I’ve been thinking a lot about this past year and all the change that came along with it. This time last year, I attended FSN – my first official event at Flood – not knowing a soul. Nervous yet excited to find my first ever “church home” I flipped into hyper-extrovert mode determined to know and be known.
Last night’s event was a completely different experience as I looked into the many eyes of the folks I’ve come to know and love over this past year. Today I reflect on the past “year” – the good the bad and the ugly – that led me to where I am today.
In July of 2008, my life did a 180 and I learned a great lesson on God’s perfect timing. Within a month’s time I found my home church, landed my dream job and walked away from a relationship that I had life-long hopes for. Have you ever had your dreams come true and crushed at the very same time? I didn’t know whether to jump for joy or cry – I did plenty of both.
Cue whirlwind.
In the past 12 months I’ve had the opportunity to do things (career wise) that I didn’t think would be reality for me. Well not at least until after 10 years of serving coffee, doing grunt work, putting in long hours etc… I’ve had so many ‘I can’t believe this is my life’ moments (inspiration for the name of this blog) that I kinda wish I started documenting it sooner. Oh well, God’s perfect timing remember! All the while having this incredible vision of what God was doing in and through me through my time in the office.
As if starting a career weren’t enough to take on… no, no God had even more in store for the next 12 months of my life. When I attended FSN last year, I just wanted to make friends – today I have a family. In a time when my heart ached from loss of love, God gave me people who have blessed my life in more ways than they will ever now. Then came the challenge. Taking a risk for the Kingdom of God with 2 people I hardly knew and one person who I’d gone to great heights with
We came together, held hands and jumped in head first and today the Carmel Valley Group is alive, well and home to many who desire, like me 12 months ago, to know and be known. Amen.
So here I am today, July 16, 2009 – still mildly burnt out from work – anxiously awaiting a new season. This past year has been tumultuous at times, but the transformation was worth every little growing pain. With my best friend planning to start a family and my college roommate preparing to walk down the aisle, this next year promises to be exciting in the very least. Life moves on, I will soon enough be one year older (gasp) and with each passing day we are one moment closer to the day that every knee will bow…
“From the rising of the sun to the place of its setting men may know there is none besides me. I am the LORD, and there is no other.” – Isaiah 45:6