On Sunday, I spent the day being thankful for my time, and my people, here in Amarillo. It was my final day as the youth minister at Central Church of Christ, and despite the fact that I’ve spent the last couple of years preparing myself mentally and emotionally for this transition, somehow it still felt sudden. While I’m ready to start prepping for my upcoming World Race, I’m left reflecting on how the previous 8 years have impacted me and hopefully prepared me for the next season of my life that starts today.
It was strange to wake up yesterday morning without a place to be or a list of tasks to accomplish. I was at my favorite coffee shop for most of the morning, transferring documents and pictures from my work computer to my external hard drive, preparing to turn my computer, and my office keys back in to the church. At some point today I’ll start working on cleaning out my office, but I’ve been looking through all of my pictures from the past 10 years, reflecting on who I was, who I’ve become, and who I’m becoming.
Last night, I heard stories from my church and from my students, reminding me of the moments that God allowed me to partner with him over the past 8 years with his people at Central and with some in the Amarillo community. It’s humbling to see the ways that God has worked over the past several years when I didn’t know he was working, the ways that he’s brought hard things to the surface in my heart so I could learn to deal with them, the ways that he’s used me when I’ve felt strong, and how he’s used me when I felt broken. I’m in awe of how he’s surrounded me with mentors, deep friendships, and family in a place I would have never expected to end up a decade ago.
It seems like God almost always works this way in my life. I’ll go through a season of transformation, almost oblivious that God is doing anything at all, and then in a season of transition I’ll look back and experience an immense amount of gratitude for the places I’ve been.
I’m thankful for a day to simply be thankful, to look through pictures that represent memories, and to think about God’s movement in my life in the places I’ve been over the past 8 years.
Here are a few of the things that God has hardwired into my heart during this 8 year season, and that I hope to take with me:
- God’s church, as broken as it can be sometimes, is beautiful and needed.
- God’s church, beautiful as it is, need’s it’s spiritually frustrated members (young and old) to speak honestly and lovingly to it.
- No matter how distant God seems, he’s close, and he’s at work, and he’s in love with his creation…including me.
- God’s mission is his, and he is moving and active, inviting us to join.
- God is as deeply present in pain as he is in joy.
- Seasons of spiritual dryness are intensely significant and important in spiritual development.
- My identity as child of God trumps any other identity I might be tempted to claim.
- I need community to help me hear the voice of God more clearly.
I’m sure over the next several weeks there will be more that bubbles to the surface. I’m so thankful for this place, and these people, and I’m already looking forward to reunions that will happen down the road, and the opportunities that we’ll have to share what God is doing in the corners of the earth that we’ve occupied.
Thank you Amarillo. Thank you Central. Thank you friends, family, and mentors. Know that you are loved and appreciated for the ways that you’ve cared for me over the years. May God bring us back together with inexpressible joy at the wonders he has accomplished.
