My heart is so full!

We’ve had a great weekend hanging with my sister and different friends.  It’s been great because of the fun and laughs, but also hearing all the things God is doing all over the world, the country and right here in Wichita.

We got to hear great stories from one pastor about he and our other pastor’s investment in some people’s lives who need investment.  We heard about what a group is doing in downtown KC to help redevelop neighborhoods and lives.  We are getting to be witnesses of a new friend discerning God’s call and if Wichita is part of that call.  We got to hear how our church completely and sacrificially gave to support a sister church who needed it (a la 2 Corinthians 8).  I got to see with my own eyes the generosity of God’s people providing school supplies for the families our group is growing to love and wanting to serve.  I got to watch friends gather around a heart friend this morning as she experienced another discouraging episode with an illness. 

I’ve gotten to see God’s Body be His Body.

I’m so, so grateful.

In my study this morning, she asked the following question:

“In what ways has God enabled you to build on the faith and godliness of those generations that have gone before you?”

I could never count them all. 

The community I experience in our church is the direct result of some intentional and heartfelt sowing by the generation before us. 

The learning to die to ourselves and put the success of others above our own is a direct result of watching the generation before us do those very things.

The Truths that have come to mean everything to me come to us fleshed out by those who are ahead of us, doing the thang with integrity and “long obedience in the same direction.”

And the discerning of the winds of the Spirit and how He is moving His people to embrace a New Thing has been so encouraging to see in all generations of His people.

Father, you are our Abba.  You lead us with kindness and love.  Your yoke is easy and Your burden is light, even as we die.  Thank You, Counselor, for guiding us into all truth.  Keep helping us understand the times and know what [we] should do (1 Chron 12:32).  Thank You for faithful men who lead and protect and guide.  Thank You for faithful women who love and invest and serve. 

We will never get over the joy of this life we never deserved.