remember

i’ve been in a season of remembering. bill just preached on joshua 4 where the israelites build a monument of stones to remind themselves & their children of God’s faithfulness.

our church celebrated it’s third birthday. it’s been fun to remember times in the hoover’s living room dreaming & praying for this church that didn’t exist to now living & dwelling in a community. we’ve laughed at ridiculous things that happened. we’ve recounted ways God provided. we’ve talked about how hard it was at the beginning, about the difficulty of cultivating community, deepening relationships, logistically making church happen with little space & resources. we’ve eaten cake. i’ve been reading books that we’ve studied as a church. in these past three years, God has done SO much to bring families, students, space, volunteers, leaders, growth, discipleship, fish bowl, community to our church. we’ve done life together. we’ve cried together. we’ve prayed together. we’ve eaten together. we’ve become a body.

i’m studying anatomy currently & i spend most of my time thinking about the body, memorizing muscles, nerves, blood supply. it’s incredible how each part’s function is intricately tied together. when one part doesn’t function, it causes all kinds of problems.

but friends i would be lying to you if i said that remembering has not been accompanied with great pain for me. as much as i am thankful for all that God has done, i have been burdened recently with the brokenness that i’ve seen, with how far we still have to go, with relationships that have been lost.

the premise of this blog has been one of hope- hope for a future, for redemption to break forth into our brokenness, for healing to bring wholeness. in moving to charlottesville, i’ve experienced some sweet relationships. i live in a beautiful place. i am pursuing a career that i love, that keeps me awake at night in a good way, that i can’t wait to practice. but this place & this season has also been one of the hardest seasons of my life. i’ve experienced great pain in relationships, losing people i love to death & to sin. i’ve been burdened for our church, feeling the weight of the mission of bringing the gospel to charlottesville. i’ve come to a place of vulnerability, of  my sin being exposed as sin, of acknowledging how much i need him, how much i need the truth of the gospel.

it’s been good to remember that God has been faithful in the past…and that he hasn’t stopped being faithful in the present. my hope does not rest on circumstances changing, my hope for my future is in him. my hope for our church is in him. my hope for the world’s redemption is in him.

friends i invite you to remember. to reflect on the good, the bad & the ugly in your own life. i invite you to read this blog that’s going to spend the next 31 days talking about God’s love written in his word with me, to remember that his love is great & big & written down for us to be reminded of. i invite you to build stones in your mind, in your journals, on your porches of God’s faithfulness in hard & beautiful times because it’s easy to forget, to get distracted, to be overwhelmed with all that is wrong that we forget all that is right.

but this i call to mind & therefore i have hope: the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “the Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore i will hope in him.”

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