God is Faithful

Remember the old busy signals?  It was what you got before voicemail when you called someone who was already talking on the phone.  A busy signal.

Lately I feel a little like I should put a busy signal on several areas of my life.  Things have been crazy busy.  Apologies to those of you who check this blog on a regular basis, because lately it's been pretty quiet.

So what's with that?

Between selling the old place, buying and moving into the new place, grieving lots of established relationships and forming lots of new relationships, reflecting on the old job and working through a mountain of requirements to try to get a handle on the new job, giving up the old family routines and trying (usually unsuccessfully) to set up some new routines, it's been a little hectic.

Worth it?  I think so.  All indications are so far that this has been the right move.  It is just incredibly costly in terms of change, time, and stress. Yet it feels like the right thing.  That doesn't make it an easy thing.  Just the right thing.

Then there's the new job.  As senior pastor at Calvary, right now I'm trying to manage change in our church council configuration, youth ministry, children's ministry, worship and music programs and personnel, men's ministry, staffing relationships ... am I forgetting anything?  Probably.

These changes feel like the right things, too.  Not everyone agrees, and that creates conflict that requires more time and energy.

Here's the thing.  Jesus never promised his followers an easy life.  On the contrary, he said, "In this world you will have trouble -- but take heart, I have overcome the world."  Doing the right things might not be easy.  It might require a lot of energy and effort.  It might cost us.

But it sure beats not doing the right things.

In the last few weeks, I have signed off many conversations (especially via email, but also in person) with the words, "God is faithful."  If we are doing the right things and it's really hard, our only hope is that these words are true.  God is faithful, and he will accomplish his goals, his agenda.  We do what we can do and at the end of the day, entrust ourselves to him.