Sunday

Gosh, I LOVE Sundays and I LOVE our church!  Everytime we go, God ministers to our hearts and/or speaks to us in some way, shape or form.  Yesterday was no exception.  Jim and I both love how God is in the tiniest of details and we both smiled at each other as "Counting on God" was our first worship song and went right into "Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord."  And then into the song called "Forever Reign" by Hillsong.  One of my favorite parts of that song are these lyrics, "You are here, You are here.  In Your Presence, I'm made whole.  You are God, You are God.  Of all else, I'm letting go."  And then another song called "I will exalt you."  It says "My hiding place, My safe refuge.  My treasure, Lord, you are.  My friend and King, Anointed One, Most Holy."  And then into "I am free."  Aaaahhhh, my soul feels refreshed just remembering.  It was such a beautiful, joyful and powerful time of worship that I wish you all could have been there with us.  We've both been wrestling back and forth wondering about this treatment plan, how will we handle it if they propose something that we don't feel comfortable with, etc.  And once again, God reminds us to count on Him and that our strength will rise as we wait on Him and how in His presence I am made whole and because of that I can let go of everything and hold on to Him.  I can hold onto Him because He is my hiding place and a safe refuge for me...a treasure.  And because of that I am free to run, to dance, to live for Him.  Can you see how it felt like this was just for us?!  God is SO good!

The message was by one of the former staff members who had recently left to plant a church in Fort Collins.  He shared about his process of God leading them to Fort Collins and about how their family really wrestled with hearing God.  It reminded both of us of recently praying leading up to the summer about moving to Austin as well as the journey we're currently in with my cancer.  He shared how God only gave them 1 step at a time.  They could clearly see the step they were on and the next step but everything after that was a fog but how God wanted them to depend on Him.  He talked about how sometimes God does do the dramatic but often it's the quiet whispers that require us to lean in to Him to hear them.  And how life is full of "interruptions."  He spoke about how they were almost in a sweet spot in their lives and along came this "interruption".  And then He quoted C.S. Lewis, “The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one's 'own,' or 'real' life. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one's real life -- the life God is sending one day by day.”  Then the thought occurred to me..What if life isn't about our plans but God's interruptions?  What if "our plans" are the filler and the interruptions are our real lives?!  I have to say that I've always called these interruptions "new normal."  Married later in life, infertility, adoptive family, multi-cultural family, cancer - these are just a few of our "new normals."  At the time, these were interruptions but perhaps God had intended all of these all along.  Perhaps this is part of the adventure if we are open enough.  So often we wish God would give us some kind of obvious sign or roadmap to help us get through but Aaron pointed out that God "doesn't want to give us just a guidebook, He wants to be our guide."  Oh yeah, that one hit me too.  And my favorite part?  He said, "There isn't an absence of fear in the storm, there's a confidence in the Presence of Jesus."  Amen to that!  It was such an amazing time of God pouring into us and reminding us once again that He holds it all.  He holds this cancer, He holds the solutions, He holds the encouragement before we know we need it and He holds us.