Searching and Waiting...

The five of us are currently searching for a new church to call home. We desperately want to find a place that is in Salem, in our community. After spending the first two years in a church that we believe is a good fit for us in many ways, it is not in our community and there were some differences that we couldn't quite shake, so we decided that we should begin to search again. It has been a rough transition for us, our church families have always been such a large part of our lives. We have been so involved and intertwined in our churches from the past that now we feel pretty lonely and lost. I believe that as we have gotten older we have become more picky and want to piece together all the things we loved about churches past and fit them into one "perfect" place for us to worship. I admit that at this point I am tired of searching and would almost rather not bother with church, sad isn't it? So.. where does this leave us? how do we choose a place and make it home? do we choose for us or our children? It is hard to take all these things into consideration and really believe there is a "home" for us. I think I am almost to the point of just settling at a place that is best for the kids... best meaning: a place where our kids are happy, learning and have opportunities available to them - all the things I had in a church when I was growing up. I do truly believe that God will bring us to a place that will take away the loneliness and lost feeling and will feel like a "home" for us, but when??? It is hard to be patient in this process, it is hard to not make a quick decision just b/c we feel like we need to be somewhere NOW! Almost like we are not loving Him by not settling into a church. How long do we search, How picky do we be??? searching and waiting....

It's been a while....

Wow, time flies when you are livin' life! I can't believe how quickly "commitments" like remembering to post to my blog weekly (yeah, right) fly out the window in the Season of Urgency (how 'bout even quarterly). In all seriousness, I'm not sure how different things are when compared to my last post- some 4.5 months ago. I'm still "holdin' out a new hope", in the sense that I've not given up on Hope. In some ways, though, I'm less sure of what is ahead.

The "range" of my hope has shortened.

Events in life have helped me to see that "hoping" in the future is somewhat fruitless. Rather, hope in the present is a much more needed (and fruitful) venture. Hoping that I love my neighbor and my family, hoping that I will speak kindly to my wife, hoping that I will hold my companions up in my prayer, and hoping that I will see beneath the surface features that define my co-workers and students to appreciate their true worth. These are things worth hoping for, and these are the things for which I "take hold".