Sat, Oct. 11
... Decade of Destiny
Oh my goodness!!
Jen and Mike are engaged!! So excited!! And I get to be one of her bridesmaids!! I'm so happy for them... this is really exciting news! She called me tonight to tell me, since she knew she wouldn't be able to tell me in person, so I got to squeal and be really girly with her.
So that's the exciting news of the day. Now, onto the entry that I was planning to write...
I love my church. I know I say that a lot, but it's very true, and the older I get, the more I realize it. It's not perfect, and it's made of many, many imperfect people, but it's home, and that means more and more as life goes on.
This weekend is a huge celebration... we're celebrating 10 years in our building (the church itself is about 40 years old), and also the burning of our mortgage.
Tonight, there was a celebration banquet, to kick off the weekend. Steve and Marilyn, who pastored there for 13 years, and were a big part of the vision for the new building, spoke, and there were a lot of people there who had been part of Foothills throughout the years. Norm was there, and it was great to see him, and everything was just such a celebratory mood.
It made me proud to be part of Foothills--to be part of such a great legacy of faith and promise. I'm glad that's my home, and I'm glad to be part of a local body that's as strong as the worldwide body of Christ.
When we first started fundraising for the building, back in '89 or '90, the slogan that they chose was "Building Together in a Decade of Destiny." And there were a lot of challenges that came with it. There were a lot of obstacles that came with the new building, and with the church growth in general. I remember some of them; some of them were over my head, since I was only 11 or 12. But even looking back and hearing the stories of God's faithfulness, I'm amazed at the way it's turned out. I love to look at the success, and revel in the fact that I serve an such an amazing God that this is not just a possibility, but a reality.
And it has been successful. In the world's eyes, yes. We do have a nice building and good programs and friendly people and a strong sense of community. And those are all good things. But more importantly, it's been successful in God's eyes. People have seen God through us, and more lives than I'll ever know have been touched through the impact of our church, and that's a legacy that I'm proud to be a part of.
I love the fact that we're celebrating paying off the mortgage exactly ten years after the dedication of our building. It was dedicated on Thanksgiving weekend, 1993, and we're celebrating being out of debt on Thanksgiving weekend, 2003. I don't think it's a coincidence. I think that the campaign slogan of "Building Together in a Decade of Destiny" was more prophetic than people realized. Yes, initially it referred to the '90's, and to the things that God did and the building that we were able to have. But this past decade has been such a formative one, in so many lives, and in our place in the community. It truly has been a "decade of destiny," and it can't be anything other than God that these two significant celebrations come exactly ten years apart.
It blows my mind when I look back and see God's hand in so much of life. Yeah, there are the big things, but even in those, I see so much more in retrospect than I ever do when I'm staring them right in the face.
infinite || abyss
posted at 2:11 a.m.
