Back in the USA, back at Journey on a weekend, but hopefully not fully back to normal.
This was a weird and cool weekend at Journey. For a variety of reasons we scrapped the weekend that we had planned, which was to be a break in the God at the Movies series, and added the very close runner up in the People’s Choice balloting, UP.
But then came that little excursion to Haiti that you can read about in the 4 or 5 posts previous to this one. My original plan was to give a report on my trip (about 5-10 minutes) and then launch into the weekend message. I was going to talk more extensively about Haiti and “Church to Church” when we had more of a fully developed plan. But I felt like Paul in the Acts 16 – trying to speak, but the Spirit “forbidding me” – o.k. this may be a little over the top, but you get the idea.
So on Wednesday afternoon, the team and I decided we had to just talk about Haiti. I felt like the Lord had a word for us.
My main fear, honestly, was how raw things were with me in Haiti. In case you can’t tell from the previous posts, I got WRECKED by my 5 days in Haiti. All week when I was alone I was getting choked up thinking about what I experienced, what I saw – the devastation, the hope, the heroic pastors. Somehow we got through and I felt like God was clearly moving.
Marko and I share some highlights and pics. Then I laid out the message, such as it was. That night I spoke at New Format (our college ministry gathering). Your (people of Journey) response was stellar! Here’s what I wrote in my journal today:
– YOU GOT ME THROUGH – I was a long weekend. I tossed & turned all night Sat night nervous about it. It was powerful. God, there are times I marvel at Your church. There are times when I marvel at the grace gift that has been given to me to be a part of it, let alone lead and speak to it.
SELAH – It was a perfect weekend for a Selah. I felt led to share something as we began Selah. It was basically this: On a weekend like this, when we’ve seen and heard about such a grave situation, the wrong response is, “I have nothing to complain about; I won’t even bother God with my little problems when there are people living in tents and lacking food.” That basically says 2 really wrong things:
1. “God, you help those people with real problems, I can handle this.” Yikes! Veiled pride.
2. “I don’t want to ask You for anything God, because there are people that need so much more.” This one carries the assumption that God can only handle so much. I don’t want to tap Him out asking Him to help me with my “American” problems. Listen, God has plenty. His resources are inexhaustible! We need to approach Him knowing that.
I’m grateful for the Journey we took together this weekend. But we’ve just begun. To answer the hundreds of emails that I got today, YES we are going to be telling you more about what our partnership look like and what you can do! I’m stoked you are so ready to go! Keep your ears open. You’ll be hearing specifics SOON!
