A New Chapter in Life

In order to avoid the on again off again rain showers that the hurricane in the gulf has sent our direction I headed to Richland Mall today after lunch to get my daily walking in. On my first trip down the mall I was stopped by a woman working this pagoda for Dead Sea products. Now normally I would just tell these people that I wasn't interested and keep walking but for whatever reason this day I decided to stop and humor her. After listening to her sales pitch and endeavoring greatly to not buy her product, I moved on. Every time that I would make the lap in the mall she and her fellow worker would try and get me to buy their stuff. I may buy some one day, just don't really have the extra money to spend on something I don't really need right now. So on about the 4th trip around I stopped to ask the girl (her name is Nicole) a little bit about her because I figured, hey why not, I don't usually meet people outside of Truett, might as well work on this shy thing while I'm working on this healthy thing. While I was talking to her I noticed that she had a tattoo behind her ear of a Star of David with Hebrew writing underneath so I asked her what it meant. She said that it stood for "a new chapter in life." For those interested, it turns out that her mom is Jewish and that she's a Catholic from El Paso.

This post isn't really about her though. Not really about my walking the mall either. Her tattoo however, led me to think about where I am at in life. Seems like there are many of us that are starting a new chapter in life. The fellas (Randall, myself, JT, and Omari) have all decided that we are not happy with where we are at physically and as far as health goes and have all started taking steps to improve that. My friends back home are trying to start a new chapter in their ministries after the split that the church has gone through. My aunt is having to start a new chapter in her life because my uncle decided to cheat on her and he is moving out. Other friends are feeling God's call more clearly than they did before and while what they feel called to may not be a popular thing in some cases, they feel strongly that they have heard His call clearly and are moving towards that call. For some of us, this new chapter may mean letting things go that we love. For others it may mean taking up causes that are not popular. For still others it may mean taking on things we would not normally take on. Regardless of what it is, we are starting the next chapters of our lives. In this story book we call life, we are always moving towards the next chapter, until we reach the back cover of the book.

What will our story look like though? Is it a science fiction masterpiece? A romantic comedy? A tragedy the likes of which has not been seen since Shakespeare? Unfortunately for us, we don't know how much longer we have to write in this story book. We can only hope that when we reach the end, we will have a complete story. Every story will look different, but hopefully every story will have a central element that is the same. The chapter about the life changing moment. The chapter where certain death looks imminent for the main character, and where all hope looks like it has been lost. This is the chapter where salvation arrives in the form of a hero. Someone who has been a part of the story but has seemed like they were just there to ruffle feathers and keep the reader on their toes. Until one day, he stepped in front of the moving vehicle to protect the main character. Until he sacrificed his life to save the lives of others. This is the chapter we hope becomes a part of every story. You see this chapter is quite clearly about Jesus and his grace. The grace that abounds within our lives. The grace that we hope others will find in their lives. You see it's a part of the story that just makes the story come together. It makes the story come alive.

You see, when that chapter is in the book somewhere, every story has a happy ending.

Pastor Coco

God's sense of humor

So Monday night (June 28, 2010) I spent an extended period of time with my buddy Omari. I consider my friendship with O to be completely a God thing. O was the first person I met when I came to Truett and I definitely consider him the closest of all my Truett/Waco friends. We talked for a while about girls and God and life in general and I got to share with O about some of the things that have happened over the last few weeks since I've talked with him. We talked about how I was finally moving on from a relationship that ended 2 years ago, and about where both of us were at in life right now. Then we talked about how God has spoken to us in life and I told O that the only time that I've truly heard God speak so clearly is when I was breaking up with my ex-girlfriend. This led to a good conversation about the stirring of the Spirit and about hearing God more than we think. So this morning (June 29) I started out the day post-shower by jumping into the Word. Now for someone that is a preacher this may seem like not a big deal, but unfortunately this is not as common an occurrence as it should be. Anyways, I jumped right into Romans because that book is always on my heart for whatever reason. What I read in the first few chapters reaffirmed what I had felt God saying to me throughout this whole moving on process and so that was a great relief.

At that point I decided to hit the road and get in a drive for some worship time with God. I hit fourth street headed towards Cameron Park and I ended up stopping at the zoo, deciding to kill some exercise time and a longing for time with God and a time at the zoo all in one stop. So I hit the CP zoo and started walking around. Before I had even moved on from the first exhibit, the thunderclouds were starting to roll in and it was starting to sprinkle. Immediately, I prayed to God and was like, God I know we need the rain but can I at least see the rest of the zoo first. So I just kept walking and it kept raining but not much at all. I got to enjoy pretty much all of the zoo, seeing almost every animal and getting to enjoy the beauty of God's creation. I even got to see an Orangutan named Makuah scare a group of children. So then I finally arrived back at the front of the zoo and got around to the last habitat, Lemur island. I kid you not, as soon as I snapped a picture of the lemurs with my phone, a steady rain began to fall and as I walked to the front gate all I could do was laugh and tell God how much I loved him and ask him what else he had for me because I thought His joke was pretty funny. As I asked Him what else He had for me, the rain continued to increase in abundance.

You see there are many that will tell you that God is cruel and fickle. I don't see that God. I see a God is humors me. One who isn't afraid to tease me with a good joke, and one that isn't afraid to pour out His love on me, whether it be spritually, or literally in a rain storm like He did today. God I'm ready for more. Rain down on us all.

Pastor Coco

That Time Again

It seems for all my attempts to be good at this blog thing it always seems to escape me. No matter how many times I tell myself that I will be writing more frequently, those posts where I pledge that come months apart and all I have to show for it. So I feel I should write again. Still not sure why. The urge to write doesn't seem to stay for very long, but I love to do it. It feels right when I do. Just can't seem to sustain that feeling. Maybe I'm not meant to. Maybe this isn't my calling but merely my place to vent. The place that I come to every so often to keep myself from imploding. So it's that time yet again. To release the pressure before my world blows up in my face. So I sit at the computer again. Struggling to find the words that seem right. I find myself a week removed from a week of solitude with God at Falls Creek and find myself longing to return. See that's the problem with camp. You spend time with God and everything feels wonderful and then it's over. Everything that you felt right about throughout the week ends and you go back home. Instead of doing the same things that you did at camp back home, you go back to life. You sink back into the old routines. Instead of working with all you are and working toward the things that you were called to at camp, you spend all your time wishing that you were back there, instead of bringing those feelings to where you are. This is the problem that I face now. I want to be back there, with the people that I have grown to consider family. With the kids that I have literally watched grow up. Instead I am back in Waco, with the people that I have also come to call family. Should they bother to read it, many of the people who do indeed read this will be the people I am referring to. The problem is they weren't there and they don't know the experiences that I had during that week at Falls Creek. Some of them were halfway around the world at the time, others were with their family. None of them however, were in Davis, Oklahoma. Except the ones that were with me. The ones that I already miss. The ones that God has called me away from, though my heart remains there with them. So I write again, once again rambling incessantly about things that aren't meant to change. So I write to write, because I have nothing else to do. There is no appealing the call of God. There is no going back and giving the whole listening thing another shot. There is only forward motion, with the occasional (or frequent) backslide. There is only the life that we are called to. In my case, the one that called me from where my heart remained. I pray that I can return there again someday. For now, I can only write and wait.

Pastor Coco