More then Enough

Change.  It's not something I embrace easily.  I like knowing what to expect.  I take comfort in the familiar.  The unknown is formidable. It scares me.  My sense of adventure consists of rearranging my furniture once every five years.

When my husband began feeling the Spirit's prompting to move, it was a struggle for me.  I can't say I made it easy for him.  I dug my heels in and pulled back hard.  It wasn't exactly the picture of a submissive wife.  However, it did lead to much prayer and soul searching on both our parts.  My husband loves and cherishes me.  He fasted and prayed, begging God to bring him to where I was if that was His will.  Instead God brought me to a point of peace and submission.

I have been contemplating what I want to say to a church family who has loved us for almost 23 years.  How do I even begin to have the words to say as we face change together... and yet separate?

It's the separate part that is hard.  We have been together for a long time.  Even before my husband's ministry here, you all helped raise me.

Together you helped me grow up, embrace God, and love the church.

Together we have raised our families.  I went from babysitting your children to teaching your grandchildren.  We went from being teens to being parents and raising our own children.  Together we changed diapers, struggled through the exhausting toddler years, survived the hectic schedule of school activities, and cried through graduations and children leaving home.  Our lives were intertwined and you became an intricate part of who I am.

Together we were blessed with a new church building.  We struggled and persevered through the building process.  Memories were built along with the building.  Hopes and dreams were shared.  Meals were made and partaken of with laughter and fellowship at the end of a long work day.   Prayers were lifted up...prayers for the future of the church and the advancement of God's work. Those prayers united us, and God's grace kept us together through the difficult challenge of building.

Together we rejoiced.  The birth of a child.  Success in a job.  Graduations.  Marriage celebrations.  Answered prayers.  The joys we have shared with each other and God's answers to prayers are some of my heart's greatest treasures.

Together we faced hardship.  The hardships of broken marriages, rebellious children, lost jobs, cancer, illness, and death were not faced alone.  We wept.  We prayed.  We fasted. We embraced.  We loved.  We went on.  Never the same again.  Forever changed.  But still joined by love and faith.

Together we introduced people to the Lord.   There were happy tears as our children gave their lives to God. There were prayers for our friends and family members. God answered many times in the waters of baptism.  This is the ultimate joy and goal of all we have been through together.  It's about bringing people to the Lord and growing together with them in faith.

God called us to work together for Him for a season.  We were blessed with a long season.  Now he is calling us to work in separate places. I can't say I completely understand his reasons why.  However, God is granting me the grace to trust Him because of all I've learned together with you.  Probably one of the more important things I learned was that no matter what we face in life our God is enough.

God is enough as we face the changes of tomorrow.  He is already there.  What he has brought us through together reminds us that He is more then enough.  He is sufficient.  He is all we need.

So it is with thanksgiving to God for all he has given us together that I go on from here.  My only question would be in the words of Paul to the Thessalonians, "How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you?"  (I Thessalonians 3:9)