Monthly Archives: October 2005

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Moved

It took about 6 hours, one large truck, one small Toyota truck, two men and my sister, but we got everything moved into my new place Friday. YAY!!

I loooove my new home. It’s an amazing cottage/guest house on two acres surrounded by trees. The house is a lot bigger and more spacious than I’d thought, the exception being the storage. I have only one large walk in closet in which to put everything that had once occupied a small walk-in closet, a storage closet, a laundry closet and a small entry closet. Whew… that’s a lot of stuff. Thankfully there’s also a little attic space as well. But my closet is a little crowded.

All but two boxes are unpacked and two pictures have yet to be hung. Otherwise, all signs that I’ve not lived there before Friday are gone.

Nina was such a God-send!! She drove out late Thursday night/Friday morning and worked like a dog loading and unloading  my car twice and her pick-up once, cleaning my old place, hanging pictures in the new one, organizing my closet and re-organizing the kitchen. She helped me unpack boxes, throw out or give away stuff I no longer use or don’t really like, shopping for a vacuum and some small pieces of furniture, putting the furniture together and — most of all — she helped me get organized.

I think she should be on that show, "Clean Sweep". She’s be good on it. She can really crack the whip on cleaning out and throwing out, sorting and discarding and organizing. She really whipped my butt into shape. And that ain’t no easy task.

I have no internet or cable at the new place yet. So I’m at Panera having some chai, a pumkin muffin and a moment to breath before heading off to the grocery store — and perhaps Best Buy for a wireless router.

Thanks so much, everyone for the comments and good wishes for the move. All went peachy — but I’m pooped!! Cheers!

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Exhaustion, Frustration, Questions and Packing

I’ve been working like crazy, packing like crazy and getting things in order for my move this weekend to my new place. That’s why I haven’t posted — no time to write!!

I’m excited about getting moved, BUT I’m completely fed up/frustrated and pooped out by all the crap that goes with moving… namely, packing and arranging help to move. Pretty much everyone I’ve asked has either not been able to say because of their fluid schedules, committed and then back out because of previous but forgotten engagements, or not been able to help at all due to schedule conflicts.

I miss the days when all I had to do was tell my life group I needed help, and tell the worship team, and voila! I had an instant moving party. I’ve figured that I probably just don’t know people well enough here to really rate high enough in their lives to squeeze in a move for me. Not that I think people are free but just not coming; I don’t. I think everyone’s reasons are legitimate. But I had many years of history with my friends in LA, and consequently they always managed to come through for me when I needed them.

I’ve pretty much given up on the idea of getting it done with free labor/help and have booked Two Men and a Truck to come move the furniture on Friday. I feel much calmer and at peace now than I have the last week or so not knowing who, if anyone, was going to show up. Saturday I’ll move the smaller stuff that the professionals don’t — unless they have time (and I have the money) to move it all at once.  Which, come to think of it, would be awesome. I like the idea of having Saturday to unpack in a relaxed, non-rushed way.

All the craziness with trying to get a moving crew together caused me to really consider where I am right now and the kind of community I’ve chosen to plant myself in. — And yes, I choose the word plant, even though, as Larry points out, there’s a trend in the ministry world of moving away from the phrase "church plant" because it implies immobility, rootedness. More on that another time. — Am I in a place where people really understand and live out the phrase "doing life together", or am I in a place where it’s just another word for fellowship at appointed times?

I don’t really know. My heart and gut tell me its the former, not the latter. But another voice tickles me with the emerging situation of my move and tells me perhaps my heart is wrong. Which voice do I listen to? Which voice is right?

I don’t have answers. Only decisions. I choose to believe my heart.

Nashville is such a different culture than LA. And Nashville churches such different animals than Mosaic. I thought life was rather fluid at Mosaic. And, in truth, our services are very fluid. But life in general wasn’t so much. Here, with so many people in the music industry and not knowing from week to week, even day to day, what their schedule is going to be or where they will be working, life is incredibly fluid. It can be crazy-making. Especially for a mild control-freak like me. I like to know things, have things settled, in advance. Flexibility is fine, but at least give me a range, some boundaries, that the flexibility will be within. Does that sound crazy?

No matter how longingly I stare at my past, it will never change the place I’m in right now, or the places God desires me to go. I miss my home church. I miss my community. And yet, if I were to leave here, I’d miss People’s Church just as much — but for different reasons. I hope, perhaps, that the community I form here will be just as strong, just as durable and just as eternal as the one I have in LA. Even now, after being gone over a year, I know I’d be surrounded and loved on and plugged into service there as I ever was.

But I haven’t been at TCP long enough to expect that from the community around me. At least I don’t think so. People don’t really know me, don’t have a history with me yet. Community is based on relationships. And relationships are like a garden. They have to be tended to with great care. I’ve planted seeds and some small shoots of friendship have sprung up, but those tender shoots can’t hold too much.

At least that’s what I think. I don’t know… am I wrong about this? Am I not expecting enough from a community? Or am I expecting too much? Is Mosaic the exception or the rule?

I hope this post makes sense…. I’m too exhausted to proof it.

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We had Him before “hello”

Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son. — Paul (Ephesians 1:4-6, The Message)

Just a piece of what God’s been pouring into my heart lately… May you be richly blessed by Jesus today as you go about your life.

I can’t stop thanking God for you, my friends (and my readers)!! Every time I pray, I think of you and give thanks! But I do more than that. I ask. I ask Him, the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory–to make you wise and discerning in knowing Him personally, growing closer to Him in intimate love, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is He is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life He has for all followers of Jesus, and the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust Him–endless energy, boundless strength! (based on Ephesians 1:16-19, The Message)