On October 7th, 2008 my wife handed my a little black book. Not what you’re thinking It was journal, a gift for our anniversary. I had never had a journal before, but as I opened it up these words were written in it; “in this book are blank pages of our life for you to write on. Write about our journey, what God does, and all that happens in this next chapter of life for us”.

In my first journal entry I began to write how afraid, insecure, nervous, anxious, I was about moving my family to Orlando from everything they knew. In GA we had our own house that my kids were born and raised in. Friends that were like family, a small group, a job, benefits, and an opportunity to serve with some of the most amazing people we had ever met at West Ridge Church. For over 8 years our life had become imprinted by this Church and its people. Now God was asking us to leave. In that first entry I asked God for many things… help with support cause we cant financially sustain ourselves as a young church, staff, people to actually come to the church, and then I ended with this; “God prepare to put someone in our house here (GA) and help us in our transition into a home in Orlando”.

We left Georgia on June 7th, 2009 and moved to Orlando. We put our house on the market in March and had only two people look at it. We knew we had to get to Florida to prepare for the launching of the Church and to get our kids in school. Chad Harper is a life long friend of mine since childhood. He met his wife in Orlando on a trip I brought him on. He and his wife Michelle opened their house for us to stay in. They are married with no kids. We are married with two kids and two dogs All of our stuff was thrown into 3 storage units costing us $400+ a month. We kept out what was needed and lived out of suitcases and bins. We thought with everything we had that by the end of the summer our house would sell, allowing us to move into our own home. Well, August came and and our house had not sold. We dropped the price, losing equity and the ability to pay off some of our debt, but we were still in a good position. October, November, and still our house had not sold. The Harper’s are like family! They consistently told us to stay as long as we needed. Journal entry, after journal entry I found myself pouring my heart out to God. “Sell our house! Do immeasurably more than we could ask or imagine”, “allow us to have a place to call our own”, “God give us a home to settle, a place the kids will feel some stability”, etc.

Early December we got a call from our realtor back in GA. A contract on our house was made! We were so excited. What a Christmas gift! Perfect situation. They actually came through a post we did on craigslist. Because we had dropped the price we would still make up some money because they did not use their own realtor. Contract was in place with 1 contingency… financing. They were pre-approved and ready to go. 48 hours before the contract was sealed they backed out. Their credit had changed in that period and they were no longer able to be financed. What a blow. A very low point for us. “God, what are you doing?”, was my journal entry. “I don’t know if I can pray anymore”. I had prayed longer than ever. I had fasted more times in this period than I had in my entire life! “God why are you not hearing me?”. Yet every time I got to this point, I ran to to the scriptures and would read things like: John 11:40 “didn’t I tell you, if you believe you would see the glory of God”, Ephesians 3:20 “to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than you can ask or imagine”, “for I know the plans I have for you”, “my thoughts are greater than your thoughts and my ways are greater than your ways”, “if you obey me, I will be your God and you will be my people”, “take up your cross and follow me”, and so many more. God was always reminding me that he was in control.

Spring time and no house sold, price had been dropped to what we owe. We would actually have to take a hit and come to the table with money to close. We had lost all equity and all ability to erase the debt we so needed to do. The Harpers had put their house up because of some plans that where in place for a while and had a person in their house within a month. We had to move. No place of our own to go to. They didn’t kick us out. It wasn’t close to anything like that. 11 months we lived with them and their willingness allowed us to build our launch team, lay the foundation and start the church! They are part of our story.

Scotty Patterson was someone I lived with during my internship here in 1997. He and his wife Shellie who are part of our Church asked us to move in with them. Once again plans to only stay a month or two and hopes by summer that we would have our own place and we could settle. June 7th, 2010 came and went. A year in Orlando and our house had not sold. We still didn’t have a place our own. My family had prayed for this for 20 months!!! Longer than I had prayed for anything. Our house had been on the market for 15 months now. Price dropped again.

June passed and nothing. We now had 7 weeks before school. We could not stay with the Patterson’s forever either. Scotty & Shellie had been more than generous. But where would we go? What about school for the kids? Could we ever find a place to call home and settle? “God we have given up everything to be obedient, why are we stuck?”, I found myself writing. Then all I had to do was look at the Church. It was clearly evident. God is doing amazing things that I don’t even have time enough to tell you about in the lives of the people there and in our life as well. Church had become our home. It was were everything made sense, because nothing else did.

At the beginning of July we had to look at all options. Over the entire year I had not even remembered that I had a 401k from West Ridge. It wasn’t close enough to retire on and I was faced with this question… “why would I have money sitting in a place that I won’t see 35 years from now, if I live that long, and yet I can’t even take care of my family now?” The money would be enough to erase our debt and at least allow us to look at getting our own place. This would truly be a moment to think upon the words of Jesus; “do not worry about tomorrow or what the day may bring”.

We cashed it out and paid off our debt. With debt gone and the money we would save by getting our stuff out of storage, we could get a place. So we started looking at rentals. Orlando is not a cheap place to live! We looked and found nothing for weeks. Everything was dirty, damaged, or sketchy. Finally our realtors wanted to explore other options just to see. We soon found ourselves before a lender. What I thought was gonna be a quick meeting and back to renting soon changed. With our debt gone, a very good credit score, and more, we had been pre-approved and it would be cheaper than renting!!

We found ourselves within a day putting a contract on a house! It was an inventory home that was being build they they wanted to move. It had $10,000+ in upgrades and more! We negotiated all of it and found a price to settle We finally were gonna have a place. God was gonna allow us to settle. To have a house that we could raise our kids, a place for my wife to decorate and call home. A place to invite people from the church over for dinner, a place to have family come stay and visit us, a place to meet OUR OWN neighbors and reach out to them.

Day after day we went by the house. On Wednesday of last week (August 11, 2010) we got a call. File completed and sent to underwriter. Our walk through was on Friday morning and we were to close this coming Friday, August, 20th. Late Wednesday evening I received a call. I was told the loan was not going to pass through. I remembered feeling like I wanted to puke. How would I tell my family?

We were being told that the underwriter did not want to sign off because we were being seen as “self-employed” because my name was on the Church business license. They wanted 2 years of w-2’s and I only had one. They brokered it out to 6 other lenders and none wanted to pick it up. On Thursday the builders used their own lender and he also brokered it out. 10-11 lenders and none willing. Still nothing. They were asking for co-signers, more money down, all of which could not happen. What would we do? School starts in 7 days and the kids are registered in a house that we may not live in and in a school zone we may not be a part of. Then our builder called a lender who lives in the subdivision we were building. He came up Thursday late afternoon and said he would not know till Monday. Last chance. It would either happen or it was dead.

Panic, frustration, fear, anxiety all set in. It was hard! I jumped in my car and grabbed my phone. Opened my Bible program and started pushing buttons. It opened Psalm 46 “Be still and know that I am God”. I didn’t want to be still! I had been still for almost two years. But a peace came over me. “Count it all joy when you face trials and temptations, because the testing of your faith creates perseverance…”, rang through my head.

On Friday we had to do our walk through. Mixed emotions. Would it be ours? Was this salt on the wound? While doing our walk through at 9:00 am, my phone rang. it was my realtor back home in GA. WE HAD A RENTER IN OUR HOUSE BACK IN GA! I didn’t know what to think. I was so mixed with emotion. They signed a two year agreement and it was the perfect deal. It was as if God was saying… “Be still and know that I am God”. I had prayed for almost two years and God had finally done what He wanted and when. I was ok with that. I was taught early on in life “trust in the LORD with all you heart and lean not on your OWN understanding…”

But what about our place? Was it ungrateful to think this way? I needed to find space to praise God even in the confusion and uncertain future that would be before us. Sunday in Church we were ending our 21 days of Prayer. Fitting that it was during this time that all this would happen At the end of the service this Sunday the entire Church laid hands on my wife and I and prayed over our situation. We had close friends & family who were willing to pray around the clock, fast and stay up all night standing in the gap for us. After the service an elderly women came to me and told me she had a dream of me the night before. (?) She then explained that in her dream I was filled with joy, dancing and celebrating and she was so excited for me. Was it true? Could it be? Or was it just cute?

Monday came and we awaited by the phone all day. No real word. No hint of direction. Then at about 3:50 we got a phone call. It was my realtor back in GA. Our AC unit at the house their needed to be replaced! GREAT! Just more news. I about exploded. Why? How? When? What? Then at 4:10 the phone rang. It was the lender. This was his statement; “Tim I am calling to tell you that after much work, we are pushing your loan through”. I paused. He said it gets better… “we are dropping your interest rate from 5% to 4.5%.”, “we wanted to show you that our fees are great so you don’t have to come to closing with any more money, not a dollar”, “and we would like to show the builders how good we can do business so we are gonna expedite your closing to keep it this Friday”.

What? I didn’t know what to say. The money we were supposed to bring to closing would now replace our AC unit. The 4.5% would bring our house payment down even more. Completely cheaper than renting! God was at work. It wasn’t coincidence that our house in GA rented on the same weekend. It was God at work!

I couldn’t even run inside to tell my wife. I remembered this passage of scripture as it flooded my thoughts:

Deuteronomy 8
1 Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land that the LORD promised on oath to your ancestors. 2 Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that people do not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. 4 Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years…

11 Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God,…

17 You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” 18 But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth,

I knelt in the drive way and prayed, before I ever ran in the door. I was humbled and overwhelmed. God had done “immeasurably more than we could ask or imagine”!

The story sounds great, but it has come with much sacrifice, hard times, and difficult moments. Following Jesus is NOT easy! Church Planting isn’t a game! This is tough. I know the journey has really just begun. This time of testing might be over, but others will come. I pray that I nor my family will every forget this part of the journey. That our faith has grown stronger, for when tougher times come. I know this… my journal entries will forever declare our story, so that we can and wont forget God’s work. His Word has become my refuge and strength. The first place I run to in my day. Prayer has become the center of everything in my life, something that has me longing to find how many times I can respond in prayer each day.

Thanks to all who have been praying. Thanks for standing in the gap. We still need you, but today celebrate with us, because God has given us a place to use for His glory!

During Lent I decided to give up all social media for 50 days.
No twitter.
No Facebook.
No Blogs.
With that said here are a few thoughts that I discovered by not having social media in my life.

1. Less Distracted

This first is the most obvious. Not having it allowed me to stop wondering/worrying about who posted what, reading another link, or checking my phone while out. I found I could accomplish much more in the day. Too often I would read something, click a link, comment back, check to see if someone commented on my comment, and next found out that I wasn’t getting done what actually needed to be done.

2. Social Media has replaced real interaction between people

I had no clue that without social media I would be completely on an island. I realized that all the “friends”/ “followers” that people are so worried about updating and posting for really are not that at all. Most people just want a quick glimpse. Cell phones are no longer used for actually calling people. Out of all the “friends” and “follower” I have, only about 4-5 actually cared enough to call and talk about life, instead of waiting for a quick 140 character hit. Did most do it on purpose? No. But I realized how many people have substituted real interaction for cyber relationships.

3. No more competition

Most of what twitter offered was a continual competition of who could get the next 140 re-tweet. Rooted in who had done what, who could get someone to forward out their best saying for the day and what the world needed to stop and know about them. Myself included in this. Without it I was freed from getting sucked into the competition that leaves so many questioning, struggling, and wanting to give up, because their 140 characters don’t offer or sound as great as another.

4. The important things got my first

Instead of rolling over, checking my phone, pulling up facebook, etc. I could rise each morning without worrying about what to say to twitterland or facebook world first. I could spend the first moments of my day with God and focus on my family before the kids left for school or my wife was off to her daily routine. Without social media I realized that so much of my time is hijacked by a tweet, link, post, picture, etc. It was great to set the phone and computer aside and sit with what is most important.

5. Social Media is effective

With all that I learned about not having it in my life, I also realized how quick people can connect. How quick people can respond to a need, to pray for someone in a rough place, to help a situation. With the world a click away, it was obvious that facebook, twitter, blogs, etc. are useful to communicate in the world today.

Will I continue to use it? Yes. But, I have realized the place, time and approach in my life to use social media when needed, but to release myself from the addiction that it can quickly become. Too many people have allowed it to neglect their spouses, family, and time with God, to see how many “friends” responded to a post, or how many “followers” may have re-tweeted their quote of the day. Life is more important, and people are more important. I hope to use these tools to effectively help, but not allow them any longer to replace the ways in which this world needs to understand real interaction with others.

So I’m back, but it won’t be the same

That’s why were are here. Because a God spoke the world into motion. Because a God speaks to His creation. Because God called us to obey. So when He calls… we listen.

It’s been three weeks since Genesis Church began and we have not said much about it. It’s our way of filtering through what God is doing, and not getting caught up in the hype formulated by the “church world”. This is a journey… much like discipleship. Not a competitive game for us.

We didn’t start a church to be part of the new “church planting” culture. We didn’t start a church with a desire to see our faces on some conference line up. We started Genesis Church because God said, and we responded. Yes, it took a few years of wrestling with him. Those years becoming miserable and uneasy. Wrestling with God is not something I advise for others. But we knew of the need for the local church. A place for others to participate in. A place for encouragement, support and a place to be equipped, because six days are coming. Yet, somehow we began to realize we needed this for us. Not just the community… be we ourselves were longing for a place to unleash all that God had etched inside each of us.

On January 24th, 2010 that moment to unleash became a reality. What God had birthed inside of us, the flicker that had turned into a blaze had it’s moment to release. We didn’t do preview services, like some. We didn’t do big events like others. Instead we realized that to create the movement God was calling us to, we had to be unique… it had to US! In a city, things are much, much different than a suburb or county. Lots of people, lots of churches, equalling lots of people who say; “I have a church”. So we had to be strategic and different than those before us. We didn’t search books, web sites, blogs, etc. We just decided to find God. God had created us for this, so let’s find Him and continue to find what He is asking of us. It was our desire to BE what we needed to be. Not what someone else thought we should do. If I’m correct, scripture teaches that God builds His church anyway.

However, we were not lazy. We were very diligent, and wise in our approach, use of finances, and moments in preparing for our start. For Genesis Church our gage for success will be different. I know people like numbers, and we do pay attention to those. It was exciting to have 149 on our first Sunday in a city where we were told that to have a hundred in year one is successful. But that’s not what excited me on day one. Because Genesis Church wasn’t built for just day one.

What excited me was that in week 1, week 2, and week 3 we have had families come that had almost given up on the local church. What we find to be successful is a family that hasn’t been in church for 5 years, attending for 3 weeks straight. Where we find our joy is to know that a family that has not been in church for 20 years came and returned for another week. To have families each week drive up after church is over, because they saw our banner by the road and ask for information because they are “needing a church” and would like to come the following week. Thrilled that we could give away the entire first offering we ever received completely for Haiti Relief! Not for some spectacle, but because this church will always be about helping others in this world.

That’s why Genesis Church came to Orlando. Does this city have a lot of churches? Heck yeah!
Does this city need more churches… yes!
Churches that are not here to compete with Disney or any other show. Churches that are serious about the community God has placed them it. Churches that find success not just in how many are coming, but how many are leaving transformed by the renewing of their minds.

Genesis Church has begun! We have had every technical problem imaginable for a young three week old church Our advise to all those who would like to ask… will be from what NOT to do, more than anything. But that hasn’t mattered because our success and our story is not based upon that. Our story will forever be based upon how many people

“rethink life the way God originally intended”.

Here are some pics from the first three weeks. You can finally start listening to our sermons online. But more than trying to see how “successful’ we were at launch, join us in prayer for a city called “the graveyard of church planting”. That we would be a symbol of life and light as God uses us to effectively proclaim his gospel and it would transform the way people lived.

There are more pics here because the pics below are hard to see: www.genesischurchorlando.com

Thanks to all of you who have made this story a reality. God has used you and because of it, families, people, and college students are already rethinking who God is in their world.

Over the next two weeks we are going to post our values on this blog and others, allowing for some to get a better glimpse of who God is creating us to be as a Church in East Orlando. These values are the foundation of who we are. We hope that as you begin to discover what God is doing with Genesis you will be compelled and refreshed by our purpose and desire to be obedient.

Launch date is January 24th.
Please contact us HERE with any questions or more info.

PEOPLE

People are God’s treasure. In fact he told them so in Exodus 19:5 “…you will be my treasured possession”. God‘s original design was for people to be together. All people. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 4 ”Again I saw something meaningless under the sun: There was a man all alone.” This is why we value building authentic relationships with people. Jesus’ ministry & life were solely about helping, loving and reaching people. No one was ever excluded and everyone was invited to join. In following the way of Jesus we welcome, accept, invite, live with and among everyone, no matter their background, race, political party, shape, size, dress or any other idea that might put a dividing wall between two people. God’s design happens best when this way of living takes place.
//Genesis 2:18 / Exodus 19:1-5 / Ecclesiastes 4:7-12 / Mark 12:29 / 1 John 4:7-21

FAMILY

Family is important. Although each family looks very different from the next, we believe that family should be of the highest priority. Outside of our relationship with God, our relationship with family is crucial. The role of a husband to his wife, a wife to her husband, parents to children, and children to parents are painted all through the Bible. We believe that we are to help others understand that a family learning, giving, and being together has a huge advantage in discovering the life God designed for each of its members.
//Deuteronomy 6:4-5 / Proverbs 13 / Ephesians 5:21-33

Everyone should have one. Some do, some don’t, and many wish for one. It’s that friend that travels life with you. You know, the one who was there in the “good old days” and just happens to still be there now, years later.

Meet mine. His name is Chad.

Chad was that friend since childhood that most people experienced, but now regret that they really never stayed in contact with. He’s that friend that made me get bunk-beds in my room, while he got a set of twin beds in his. Depending on the night of the week, dictated who’s house we were staying at. Middle school, High school, Church, college, vacations, summers, sports teams, all shared together.

While in college I would drag Chad to Orlando to visit with me. He had the jeep, so it was way cooler for two guys to drive to Florida in a vehicle where the top could be down, instead of a small silver Toyota Celica On one occasion while in Orlando we were set to go out on a group date. Chad needed a girl so I introduced him to Michelle Fox. In the next 24 hours my best friend told me that she was the one! I laughed, cause we were supposed to be single, living the college life, hanging in Orlando. Chad wasn’t joking, he married her. A few years later God called Chad & Michelle to serve at a Fellowship Orlando Church, where he is currently the Student Ministries Pastor and Program Director.

My family and I would visit frequently with Chad and Michelle in Orlando. It was on a visit 3 years ago that God began to burn a certain area of Orlando into my heart, the area we now find ourselves starting Genesis Church in. When we began this process, Chad was the first I called to talk about the area with. He was that friend that gave the type of support that most people looking to start a church need, when they don’t actually live in the city where they will be moving. Chad immediately told me his house, car, and anything he owned was available for whatever I needed.

But oh how I wonder how he thinks back on that statement

Early in my days on staff at West Ridge Church, Brian Bloye gave a message called “Stuff Management”. In that series he said something like this; “…one day God is going to ask you what you did with the stuff He gave you. How did you use your home, your car, your stuff to help people, and show them Jesus? Would there be people in eternity one day cause you were the first person who made them feel welcomed in your home, with no fear of breaking something or getting it dirty?… cause it’s just stuff, His stuff, and He wants you to use it.”

Our friends Chad & Michelle are a living example of this. Genesis Church would not be where it is at this point if it was not for them. Early on in the process they opened their home for personal trips, group trips, loaning us vehicles, and helping guide people around the city. In June they allowed my family to move into their home with them so that we could begin the process, even though our house had not sold. They have connected us with people, helped us get equipment, shared resources, allowed team members to stay in extra rooms while trying to move down, and so much more.

Living in their house with my kids can be a challenge, but they have lovingly excepted all that comes with us:) My kids only know them as family and I get to hang out with a life long friend. Kind of makes it fun right now. Yet even when God sells our home (which we pray happens real soon), and the Church starts, we still get to travel through life together. Both doing what God has called us to do to reach people in the city of Orlando. Couldn’t be more excited!

For all who have been praying for us and following us, know that forever the foundation, success, and story of Genesis Church will be told remembering a couple who gave up their stuff. A couple who gave up their own things to play a part in something bigger. That people who find Jesus through Genesis Church will be changed because a couple early on helped in the ways most needed for Genesis to exist.

I wish everyone had friends like this in their life. That there were more people in the world willing to look at their stuff and how they can display Jesus by using it.

This Christmas we are thankful for the gift of people. People who give up themselves for something bigger. People who are willing to sacrifice to make life possible. People, who are way more important in life than things or stuff, because God uses people to carry out his work.

This Christmas who’s your Harper? What people are a true gift to you this holiday season?

Chad & Michelle thanks & Merry Christmas!

p.s. If you have been following us and Genesis Church take a moment to thank the Harper’s for playing such a vital role in our story —- HERE or HERE

On Monday night November 2nd, 2009 we met with others in the home of John & Kristie Walker for our first Genesis Church gathering. We shared how God had crossed our paths, our heart, and our vision for Genesis Church. It was a great night for others to see the people God has brought our way and who is committing to play a part in helping us launch Genesis Church.

We will be meeting again on Sunday evening November 22nd, from 5:30-7:30 pm. If you are curious about what we are doing, interested in helping a church start, or want to play significant part in the story of Genesis Church, then make plans to join us. Email here for more info: contact@genesischurchorlando.com

We are looking for others who have a heart to help those in east Orlando find the life that God originally designed for them. Join us and find others to live life together with!

9 years ago today life forever changed as I entered into a relationship with the most amazing woman on the planet. (yes, I am totally biased) I still remember the feelings, thoughts, and emotions as the final days counted down, the hours crept by, and I took those last few steps alone to the marriage altar. There was all this waiting, this anticipation, for the opportunity to say… “I do” and join myself in unison with a women for the rest of my days.

They say “love blinds a person” and I totally agree. I never thought I could love the way I do, yet I equally never knew that love was such a progression. I still have so much to learn about love, being a husband, leading a family, but one thing I have come to know is that love has always required action.

I recently discovered that in biblical times, there was no special term for “promise”.

the closest biblical term DABAR meant… word, speech, command, action.

There are so many people who enter a relationship/covenant with another person based upon a “promise” they made to each other in front of people. “Words” that can be spoken with great intentions, yet equally with great shallowness. If we were honest we could say that most people rarely keep their word in todays culture anyways. The crazy thing is that “words” didn’t have that much weight bibilcially in marriage either. Upon further understanding we find that when this term (dabar) was used biblically, historically, and before us the picture it created was to “keep your word by pragmatic action”!

Action? There’s an idea. Could it really be that marriage takes action? Over 9 years I have have LEARNED to love a women who has become my partner, my help mate, and my equal. Oh, there are times when we try to change each other, times when we think one of us is above the other, and times when we think we don’t know if we can take each other anymore That’s the honest, life changing lessons LEARNED as marriage progresses. Those are the moments and times when we have grown to realize that our “action” speaks louder than any “words” we could actually say. We realize in those moments that there’s more of a sacredness to the way we live with each other, than some “sacred” word we can spit out before each other.

I reflect today upon these past 9 years and I remember the times when we thought that “love conquers all”. I remember the times when we could fix the little things and times when we needed help from others to actually make it through those harder ones. All moments learned as we were willing to take pragmatic action in growing to love each other in greater ways than we had loved each other the day before.

I love how one writer explained the picture of marriage when he said;

A study of marriage and the family particularly reveals that all people are a mix of strength and weakness, good and evil, faithfulness and failure – Marvin Wilson (Our Father Abraham)

I have learned these past 9 years that I have been privileged to enter a beautiful relationship with a women that I have grown more in love with 9 years, or 3,285 days, or 78,840 hours later… than the first day I met her.

I sit here realizing she has been just about everything I could need, want or desire in these past 9 years, and am equally baffled at how I will grow to understand even greater things years from now just by being beside her.

Truth is… this new place we find ourselves (starting a church) could never had been possible unless my soul mate had been just as ready for it as I needed to be. Just over 365 days ago I found myself after years of wrestling with God praying in repetition…

“God if you want me in this place of leadership, would you let me hear the trumpet sound?”

This was a constant prayer of mine. Then late one night at the dinner table last September I was stunned as my wife uttered the words;

“it’s time to do what God is asking us of us. We won’t ever be completely ready, but I believe we are as ready as we can be. We just needed some help from others, some time to learn, and some time to grow to find ourselves at this place”.

In short she had said “we just needed to take ACTION in a few areas” to get us to this point in life together.

I remember looking across the table at one who I had spent years trying to understand. Gazing into the eyes of one whom I had spent the greatest moments of life with and some of the hardest. And in one moment at that point, she had become more than I had ever expected. I had learned to see her as my partner, begun to understand that she was my equal, but never thought she would be the “sounding trumpet” that God would use in his call to this place.

Our counselor (yes couselor, I told you we are willing to do whatever to make our relationship stronger) often told us one simple thing about marriage;

“LOVE WELL”.

Funny thing is that I have just begun to discover after 9 years of spending my life together with someone what this phrase could actually mean. It’s not something that looks good on the cover of a book, not something you just say, but it’s a way of actively living with another to do all things necessary for the greater good of the other. Anything less is a misguided understanding of what it takes for two people to grow through life together. Anything less is just… “words”.

9 years into this Tandy Grandstaff has become the person that I will do anything and everything possible to “LOVE WELL”. Oh, I will mess up. I will fall short. I will get lost at times. But I didn’t stand before friends, family, and my God to spit out shallow words, I stood before a woman who I planned to actively love till death departed us.

“LOVE WELL” takes just that. Two people actively pursuing all means to learn, grow and journey through life together. Two people willing to fight for each other and learning what it means to “die to self”. All this so that the journey of marriage may unfold new ways to love each other.

A person recently shared with me that the success for life looks like this;

1. God first
2. Your marriage second
3. Yourself at the very bottom of the list

I believe that if I follow this, I can’t go wrong! Even though I will mess it up at times My marriage is the most important thing I have entered outside of my relationship with God and today I am just fortunate enough to celebrate 9 years with someone who is wise enough to understand this often more quicker than I

I love you Tandy and can’t wait to see the new things we actively discover in life together.

The three guys in this picture above are homeless. Not in any sense of the picture you might automatically associate with the person who needs help on the street in your city. Nor am I paralleling those homeless to the one I am about to describe. We are just three guys who are being obedient to God in starting a church here in Orlando, and in the process find ourselves without a home. All of us are currently living in homes not our own, staying with friends and family in our transitions. We are “wandering on a journey” you might say. Our houses have not sold, we are trying to raise support, some of us need knew jobs in Orlando, yet all of us find ourselves walking through an unknown period (desert) with a God who is… our pillar of smoke by day, and fire by night.

A few years back I discovered something that changed much of the foundation for how I understood the phrase “following Jesus”. I had often heard things taught and preached to me like “experience this full life found in Christ” “come to Jesus and he will take away all your pain” “there is never more joy found in life than in following Jesus” “God will protect you and give you all you need”. (stick with me on this)

Are these statement true? Absolutely.

Yet, there is another side of the story that was scarcely ever told. These phrases although true can often leave a person thinking; “once I say this prayer everything will be fixed” “God will take care of it”. But what happens when it just gets more difficult? What happens when that job doesn’t work out? What happens when the wandering seems to continue? What happens when it seems as if God isn’t listening?

I’ve discovered it leaves people with this semi-false message, often discouraging them and helping position them in a place to give up.

Jesus painted a different picture to his followers. He seemed to spend more time telling his followers the other side of the story. On many occasions on his way to Jerusalem in his final week he tried to teach his followers a very important lesson.

Luke 9:57-62
As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
He said to another man, “Follow me.”
But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.”
Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

Jesus’ message to those who would follow him, looked a lot different than most understand. Following Jesus for most of his disciples would lead to a life of persecution, isolation, and even death. Not quite the fuzzy “come to Jesus and all we be made well” message of following Jesus most hear.

Now for those of you wondering where this is going…

Does God provide? I have many amazing stories to proclaim and support that.

Does God bring protection? In ways that take most of us years to look back and understand.

Does God answer prayer? Always, we often forget He is writing the story, not us.

Does God bring this “full life”? Sure. And it’s found in ways we least expect it.

The understanding that I have begun to find is that following Jesus strips us of every comfort and expectation we might presuppose “following” Jesus means. Its leaves us living a life where we often feel as if we have lost it. It’s unknown, uneasy, it’s difficult. Travel the world and see the cost to following Jesus. See through their eyes the idea of being excommunicated from a village, or hiding in cellars because the “fullness of life” they have chosen to follow has a greater cost than most could imagine.

They understand what it means to “put your hands to the plow and don’t look back”.

Yet, ironically we find that it’s in that “sense of a lost life” “wandering through deserts” that we find the life God originally designed. The life that he had for us all along. The one we might just be to comfortable and distracted to find if it was any other way.

For us three and the other followers on this journey, it’s not about where the roof over our head is coming from right now, and it’s not so much about when the light at the tunnel will shine brightest. For the life we have found is one in which each day we get to wake and remember Jesus’ words:

Luke 9:1-6
When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. He told them: “Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt. Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. If people do not welcome you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave their town, as a testimony against them.” So they set out and went from village to village, proclaiming the good news and healing people everywhere.

This was the message to those early followers, the one most never understand. In following Jesus, people will deny you, people will criticize you, and people in some countries people will want to kill you. Still want to follow?

But… (isn’t always great to hear that small word)

Matthew 28:20 “surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Following Jesus with no food, no extra shirt, no home, not enough money cannot be comprehended for some, but for others it can be no other way. For we have found that the best life is not in one built around ourselves and our comforts, but one spent trusting God for absolutely everything. A life where we are invited and sent to play our part in God’s story, sharing this good news and helping heal people along the way. A life where we come to realize that it’s not about us. That true joy in life comes not from our comfort but in helping comfort others. To reach out and help lift up those hurting, those lost, and those wandering with no pillar or fire to guide them.

Would we each like our own home?
Yes.
Would we like for support money and jobs to become available?
Absolutely.
Would we give up the desert where we get to experience God coming down around the Mountain to speak to us?
No way.

This is why we follow.
This is why we participate.
This is the “full” life we find in Jesus.

If this is how we find it, then homeless is where we will be.