Anniversary

Pastor here for a change today.
Celebrating a very special anniversary.  No, not that kind of anniversary.  Kelly and I got married in April. 
A different kind... a year ago on May 11th I got the "can"… you know, "the boot." 

Actually, it wasn’t anything like that.  It just sounds more fun to say that way.

I was "released".  That really is good word for it.  

It was a mutually beneficial release… Man, talk about a release.  It allowed my friends at my old church to go the direction they felt lead to go,… and it allowed me to become a new, different me.

I did and do love my old church.

At the same time this has been the 12 months of my life that I have learned and changed the most.  Crazy.  Grateful.  Man, God loves to redeem things. 

Metaphorically (and sometimes literally), I'm driving a whole different machine.  What I do...  How I go about doing it...  My blind spots...  Well, they're all so different.  Feels frightening at times.  Feels exciting at others.  I even feel like a big kid on occasion.

I'm trying new things... things I used to make fun of... less concerned about what others might think.

I'm seeing things I've never seen happen before...

This is a picture of something I had never seen (or thought about)... it's two lizards mating.  Definitely caught me by surprise.  There have been many new (and "different") things in my life that I've stumbled into in the last year... many have caught me by surprise.  Some seem so strange, but they are the way things are intended to be (i.e. the power of the Spirit working through believers).

Trying new things... even things that I hated so deeply in the past.  Some I still hate.  Some are changing me.

Spirit alive.

Hungry.

Learning.

Becoming a catalyst for change.

Grateful for deep bonding on many levels with very special people.

Longing.

Missing.

Morphing.

Grateful for the anniversary.