The first time I walked through the door of that church, everything felt right. Most of all, it felt like a place where the love and power of God was always welcome. I had just gone through a huge, multi-year, life transition, and I was ready for the waters to calm and the wind to die down. I was ready to settle in. And for a couple of years, I did, and it was refreshing and refueling, and it was very good. It was a season and a right time for everything under heaven.
Until one day, “We need you to help us out in Hancock.” Here I was a half-hour from home, while Hancock was the next town over from mine. How cool should that be? But I was comfortable. Everything would be new in every way again, and it would mean another transition and being away many a Sunday from a family I’d just begun to connect to. “You don’t have to decide tonight, but pray about it.”
And at that moment, God must have been covering his mouth to suppress a chuckle: “Watch this!” Because when I got into my car to head home, this is the song that just so happened to randomly appear in my Spotify mix…
“Comfortable, don’t get comfortable
I’m going to move this mountain
Then I’m going to move you in…”— Brandon Heath
Today is the fifth anniversary of the launch of that wonderful Hancock church. Despite wanting to be comfortable where I was in late 2015, God gradually drew me in like a magnet to yet another new community of believers I love and a whole lot of new adventures filled with new life and answered prayers and community outreach as Jesus' hands and feet. Things that only God could do. I still have a place in my heart for where I came from because it was all part of the journey, and “a right time for everything under heaven” — it was a much needed oasis, but also another launching pad for whatever God has in mind next.
When you’re in the middle of transition, you don’t (want to) see it that way, but looking back on it all, it all makes sense:
In the Kingdom of God, there is no retiring or settling in.
God always seems to have a “next” for those who are willing to follow (even reluctantly). And especially the way things are going in our world right now, there’s a ton of Hope in that. No matter what, God is always on the move for good, even if and when we don’t see it.
In all sorts of areas of life, that Brandon Heath song will probably show up several more times on the journey ahead. But these past five years have been a beautiful reminder that in every season of life, wherever I am and whatever I am doing with my life, when I remember that I am a branch grafted into the Vine (John 15:5), nothing with God is random and everything is intentional:
“You have not chosen Me but I have chosen you,
And I have appointed — decided beforehand in a specific way
And placed — put in a particular place or position
And purposefully planted — to achieve an aim not randomly or accidentally, and set in place for growth
You.
So that you would go and bear fruit and
Keep on bearing.
And that your fruit will remain and be lasting.”
—John 15:16, Amplified (with definitions)
“God interrupt whatever we are doing so that we can join You in what You’re doing.”
— Francis Chan
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