A Great but tiring weekend...

We spent our first official weekend with the folks at Indianapolis Church at the Crossing.  I got to hang out with 130 or so great guys at their men's retreat, and then we were part of all 4 of their weekend services.  I had said before that this would be the most difficult weekend of my life in a long time.  It's now been three Sundays since we've been at the LaGrange Church.  I'm so thankful for all the great people at CATC.  They made a difficult weekend into a blessing.  It was great to spend time with a group of guys who made me feel at home even though I'd never met 99% of them before this weekend.  I know that my time with them will be enriched by God and that I will be a better follower of Christ and leader of this new church because of the time we'll get to spend with them.  We were guests of the Broyles family (Tim is the Pastor of Outreach and Missions at CATC) last evening, which was a cool blessing as well.

If you haven't heard, we do finally get to close on our house on Tuesday.  And so begins what will be a week of renovation, cleaning, painting, appliance delivery, family wedding, another weekend at Crosspoint, and then next weekend (10th-11th) the final big move.  I have felt a little more distant from LaGrange lately, but today perhaps more than any other, I miss my friends.  Maybe it's the sad music that's playing as Carlotta watches what is probably the saddest ER Episode of all time (Last Thursday's), but I'm really fighting it tonight.  It's not so much regret about our decision to follow God in this endeavor, just the heartbreak of not being with the people I love so much.  My friends Hector and Justin stopped by to pick up some furniture we were giving Hector and his wife Kellie.  For a few moments, it was just like old times.  When they drove away, I walked up the steps and just said to Carlotta, "I miss those guys."  It was a microcosm of just how I'm feeling right now.  I knew the HS Guys were upstairs at the church.  It took every ounce of self-discipline I had to keep from going up to join them, even though I know that would have done more harm than good.

This is the night I have to remind myself, we're not dead, we're just moving.  It's only 2.5 hours away.  And some of the extra emotion is coming from fatigue.  I also have to keep in mind why we're doing this.  We're doing this for Joe.  Joe is my new next door neighbor.  We met for the first time today as he got out of his monster truck with the American flag waving from a pole on the tailgate.  I don't know his story, his life, or anything more at this moment than he has two big dogs, is taking his daughter to Colorado this week, and Bud Light is his beer of choice.  There is one thing I know though.  No matter where he is on his journey of faith, I know God has more to redeem in both his and my life than is currently done.  And so, my hope is that Joe and I can figure out life together a little bit on his front porch and kinda experience more of God's redemption because of one another.  

That's all for tonight.  I think that's about all I have left to post in this writing.  

Blessings