What a day! Honored to be a part of Restore Community Church and Luke and Rachel's Commissioning along with an extraordinary group of people being SENT to Chicago to help people there find their way back to God!
I stood humbled and amazed at a God of seond chances! A God of love and favor of mercy and grace! My eyes filled with tears as I looked into the eyes and heart of Tommy Bowman, worship leader as he proclaimed with all his being more than words
I thought of Luke being called out by God to follow His choosing! And I remembered a state youth convention more than 10 years ago when Luke tender hearted told us of his experience there. He had heard Jesus call to him to get out of the boat for Him! Luke knew Jesus was calling him to be willing to follow Him and lead other people to do the same! And now here he is responding yet again to Jesus' bold call to get out of the boat and leave his beloved Kansas City (Jayhawks, his famly and all!) to go to a cold windy land in Chicago! Luke's choice would have beem more like Phoenix! He doesn't especially like the cold but he LOVES the city! He asked me once after a trip to Chicago, "Mom, why do I love the city so much?" I responded before I really even thought about it, perhaps God did, "Luke, I think you love the city because that where all of the people are!"
Luke does have a gift with people. He has a gift on the drums as well. He has a vibrant young bride who wants to DO SOMETHING before they have children and start a family! I remember their honeymoon adventure to San Diego where they treked out to a rock to take a picture together and nearly lost their lives in the strong current of the incoming tide! I love the way Luke describes traveling with Rachel as everywhere they go together is an adventure!
I know God is calling them to more than Chicago with a great group of people who have hearts to help people find God! He is calling them to a dream that is His dream to impact a city, yes, but to impact them as well! What a joy to send them, even knowing following their dream, if it is His dream, will cost them everything! God sent His son, how can we do any less?
We enjoyed getting to be a part of the SEND OFF! What fun to hear Tommy Bowman lead and share from his heart for the final time at Restore! How bittersweet for the folks there! But a new birth always is! Jon Peacock's message was inspiring and compelling! Yes, we all have dreams! And they require sacrifice and sometimes they just need to be released inside of us! We must SEE THE UNSEEN! I had never heard the story he shared about Walt Disney's groundkeeper finding him staring into space and being concerned for him, asked him is he could help him. Mr. Disney was standing in the middle of the park that at the time only consisted of ONE ride. When the groundskeeper pressed him, he said I am not staring at nothing. I am looking at my mountain. Mr. Disney died a few years later and after his death they constructed his mountain, SPACE mountain at Disneyland and at the dedication they talked of how sad it was that Walt Disney was not there to see it. When Mrs. Disney, his widow got her turn to speak, she corrected them saying, Walt saw that mountain long ago!
Secondly, Jon shared that in order to release the dream we must STAY THE COURSE. The path of least resistence has never led to anything significant! The path of most resistence is where we learn how much the dream's going to cost and is where God does His work on us. It is the path on which we are formed! Afterall the logo for Christianity IS a CROSS! It points to what is to be expected--incredible amounts of sacrifice--everything! But the Spirit of God replaces fear with faith for the journey.
Thirdly, Jon said that he had learned to SEEK THE HEART OF GOD. God's ultimate desire is to be in relationship with us. It reminds me of what Tommy Bowman said at the end of the service. He said that people had been talking about the impact he and Jess had made but HE was leaving forever changed!
We are SENT people! Who are we sending out for HIM? Where are we called to go?
Comments