Since school started it has been hard to consistently go to church, let alone find a church that Natalie and I both like. We have both been feeling God tugging at our hearts that something has been missing from our lives. Knowing that church was the answer, we made a committment to finding one. The answer was easier than we thought. My brother, Jason, and his wife, Nikki, have always welcomed us to come to their chuch, Palm Valley Church, especially on the weeks when Jason plays guitar for the band. In the midst of going to support my brother, we found the church that we're supposed to be at. We arrived in the middle of a series called "Life Hurts, God Heals." The first week we attended was about loss. I hadn't really experienced loss in a while. In fact, life was going pretty good. Then God reminded me that He has to test me to make sure I understand the lesson.
Coming home from work one night that week, a full soda can bounced up from the freeway and hit my car, cracking my front grill and denting my hood. My car is one of my nicest possessions and I really like it and am proud of it. Something like this is a loss to me. Even worse...my comprehensive deductible is $500. This amount is not a welcomed expense while Natalie and I are still in school and in debt with student loans.
Week two at Palm Valley brought a lesson about failure. I have an appeal going on at school right now over a class. I won't get into the details, but it fits the lesson.
Week three at Palm Valley reminded me that through the pain in life, I am still always in God's hands. Another situation reinforced that.
So I think I can safely say after three weeks that Palm Valley is the place where I belong right now. Though I feel as if I should communicate with Pastor Greg weekly to know what he will be preaching about. If he does a series on death, bankruptcy, fire, floods, scorpions, or furbies I will not be there to save myself from the personal application lesson that is sure to follow. The next series is about a woman's beauty. I'm married to a beautiful woman. So I think this is a safe series to attend.
3 comments:
This coming week's lesson is about abstinence and impotence. See, not all of life is hard.
Shaun,
I'm glad to hear you're finding Palm Valley to be your church family (especially since you have literal family here).
I don't have any messages planned on death, pestilence or plagues, so you should be safe for a while :)
Greg
It's been cool seeing you around at church! Jason's talked a lot about you and it's always cool to put a face to a name.
I don't care what Jason says... you're okay :)
And since you blog, that makes you more than okay :)
See you around!
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