Greater Things Are Yet to Come

My church had a ground breaking ceremony this afternoon. After 13 years, Celebration is finally going to have an actual church building! Today's event was for us all to see the plans for the new building and be a part of this exciting season for our church family. Leading up to today, the church has been doing a sermon series on "taking ground". We've talked about how this new building is an opportunity to reach more people, but how we should also be "taking ground" in our own lives. The church passed out wooden stakes for us to write down things that we are believing God for. On one side we wrote down things related to our church, on the other we wrote down prayers for our own life. And together this afternoon, we convened with our stakes to pray for this next season in our own lives and the life of the church.

On to the actual events of today...

The morning message was great, fellowship at lunch with the deaf ministry was fun, but then we arrived at the site. We sat in traffic for forever, only to be directed to the farthest possible parking lot across several dirt fields. We started on the long trek knowing we were already late. As we walked in the Florida August heat, it crossed my mind that this really was not the best time of year to be having such an event. When we finally arrived at the tents we couldn't even hear or see the speakers. And did I mention it was hot!? I was just going through the motions, and if I'm being honest I was really only thinking of myself and my "to do" list for the rest of the day. I did my best to interpret and the service was over in less time than it took to walk there. So I set out to put my stake in the ground and get out of there so we could go get some water.

But as we walked around the site to see where our church will be built, I saw the children's pastor telling passersby about the new building's children's area which will include a separate area for the special needs students. I saw youth gathered around the area that will be for middle and high school students. And I saw families praying around stakes they had placed in the ground. But as I knelt to place my stake in the ground, another stake caught my eye. The end sticking out of the ground said:

"Daddy stop drinking."

And I stopped. With tears in my eyes, I prayed for the child who penned these words. I thanked God for a church that had the opportunity to reach him or her. And I prayed for the father who needs to know how much God loves him. I apologized for being so focused on my own life, and I thanked God for the distraction and for reminding me what it means to live a God-first life. I prayed for the families, the children, and the young people that our church has the potential to reach. And I thanked God for a pastor and church who have followed God's calling to reach the city of Jacksonville.

"For greater things have yet to come, And greater things are still to be done in this city" ~Chris Tomlin