All the believers devoted themselves...to sharing in meals

Ok, ok, I'll admit it: I like food and I like to eat.

Now that we've got that out of the way, I will follow by saying that I very much enjoy eating with others. Food and fellowship. They both start with the letter "f". It's fantastic.

I have been extremely blessed in the past two weeks to have been able to reconnect with some friends. To be more precise, seven rendezvous in the past ten days. Most of which either involved or featured a meal. Today I was reflecting on how pleasant it was to catch up with these wonderful people in my life and realized that I hadn't seen many of them in quite some time.

Busyness is the most common culprit, of course, but how many meals have I eaten in between meetings (suffice it to say, there have been several!). However, it's not always a matter of "not having time". You see, as an introvert, I often prefer solitude to fellowship. As a result of investing so much of my time in "ministry", I allowed some of my relationships to falter.

Enter: the goodness of YHWH. I haven't even started my sabbatical yet, and I have already reaped so many benefits of this new season that He has brought about in me. I am relearning the value of people and the value of relationships. He knows exactly what I need and when I need it.

So...who wants to eat?

My King

Moving has always given me an opportunity to declutter my life a bit. I must admit, I usually keep "things" longer than I should, but I do enjoy a periodic purging of unnecessary material. Today I found an article given to me by a friend about the crucifixion of Jesus written by C. Truman Davis.
As I read, I was once again overwhelmed with emotion as I remembered the incredible amount of pain that Jesus chose to endure for our sake. I am tempted to feel sympathetic towards Jesus, to feel bad for him. But Paul says that it was Jesus who "shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross" (Colossians 2:15, NLT). The cross was part of the plan all along. It was Jesus' victory lap. He made the world look foolish as they were mocking him. Jesus always wins.
This doesn't at all minimize the pain that Jesus went through. Let us not forget that he, like us, was human. I have great respect for this Messiah, this King who chose me. He paid a great price for us, we should consider it an honor to live for him.

So, what's the plan?

Let me start out by filling you in on some of the changes that have been happening in my world. As you are probably aware, I have worked with Pastor Charity in the Student Ministries Department at First Assembly for about 18 months. In light of Pastor Greg's departure, the deacon team has decided to make several changes in the organizational structure of the church. After much prayer, I decided to put in my resignation with Pastor Charity in order to allow the new leadership team to implement their vision.

Many have been wondering about my current situation and my plans for the future. I am happy to report that I do, in fact, have a rough outline for the next several months of my life. I will stay in the Lafayette area until the end of October in order to fulfill previous commitments. I will then spend a few months in Florida to take a sabbatical. I strongly believe that my God is bringing me into a season of rest. A time for Him to prepare me for what lies ahead. I am determined to take advantage of this gift; to use it for His purposes, not mine. Will I have fun in Florida? Of course! But I will not lose sight of the main purpose: fellowship with my lover.

After returning from my sabbatical, I will be busy preparing for the next season of my life...campus ministry. I have been invited to join a team that will be launching a college campus ministry next fall. I have great anticipation and excitement for this next adventure! Even as I venture into uncharted territory, I am aware that I am being guided by the one who has it all figured out. I am so blessed to be involved in His great plan.

And so it begins...

So, here it is. I plan to use this blog as my primary method of updating others on my life. Why not use facebook? Well, my time with facebook is done. There are several reasons that I am closing down my facebook account, but it would take too long to expain and I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. Many of my issues are personal convictions and I do not want to transfer those to other people. John Piper wrote an excellent article on his view of the new wave of networking sites that made me think quite a bit about my use of these tools.
I would like to give a shout-out to the one and only Pastor Charity Ramlal for helping me create an appropriate name for this blog. She knows well enough that creativity is not one of strengths. 
My hope is that this blog would be more than just an update, but that it would also be an encouragement as we continue the pursuit.