Worth the risk...

Yesterday, our time together as a church was incredible!! We got to hear the story of 2 couples whose lives got wrapped around each others, and both couples are stronger because of it. See their story here.

Mike and Andrea were not married when Hurricane Katrina made landfall last year. Andrea's house and all of her belongings were totally destroyed, so....she had no place to live. With few alternatives, she decided to move in with Mike. They started coming to Crosspoint about 2 weeks later, and quickly started building relationships. While Andrea and Mike enjoyed coming to church, they had this fear inside that someone would find out her situation and condemn them both. Enter, the Pipers. Doug and Paulette (married with 3 kiddos) lived just around the corner from Mike. They had met at church and had started hanging our together some. Paulette began to see Mike and Andrea come and go together almost everywhere, and soon wondered if they were living together.

One night, Andrea came over to visit, and Paulette took a great risk. She stepped out onto the front porch and asked, "Are you and Mike living together?" Paulette loved and encouraged Andrea that night, but also went to work to find a solution. She approached Doug about the possibility of Andrea moving into their spare room. Doug thought and prayed for a couple of days and came to the conclusion that they should invite Andrea in. The cool part is that Mike and Andrea had been praying for a solution. They knew that they shouldn't be living together, they didn't want to be living together, but they didn't know what to do - there was no where for Andrea to go. - Long story short, they are like a family today. Doug and Paulette traveled to Florida to be at the wedding. In fact, Susie (their youngest) was the flower girl. Their lives will never be the same again.

I am inspired by this story because I need people in my life who are willing to take a risk, step out onto the front porch, and ask me the tough questions. More than that, I need people who, after asking the questions, help me find the right answers. For too long, us churchy people have not been willing to be authentic with each other. We have the tendency to just gloss over, or sweep things under the rug rather than having honest, transparent, and vulnerable conversations with each other. I guess we are just scared to take the risk. But Paulette, Doug, Mike , & Andrea have learned...it's worth the risk. Thanks guys. You inspire me.

Grace...

I just got off the phone with a good friend from Colorado. He's a pastor who recently went through a pretty difficult transition. Everytime I get a chance to talk with Steve, I am reminded of his story. Just a few years ago, he and his family made the difficult decision to change denominations. Without going into a lot of detail, suffice it to say that the decision was all about grace. I guess his story impacts me so much because I have the tendency to NOT be a person of grace. In fact, too many times in my life, I have already passed judgment, delivered the verdict, and pronounced the sentence before ever hearing the entire case. I want to be a person of grace. Jesus was certainly a man of grace. If not for grace, where would I be? Certainly not here, not enjoying a relationship with God and trying to walk with Him. Over and over again, the New Testament writers expressed their desire that their readers would experience the grace of God in their lives. Like those early disciples, I pray that we could truly know the grace of God and somehow help each other become people of grace.