Better together.

BBQ Easter 2014 with new friends from church.

I am quickly approaching my ten year high school reunion. This was realized yesterday & accompanied with expressions of surprise. I seldom ever think of high school except on the occasional, lazy afternoon when my mind is free to reminisce. When I do reminisce, or gently flip through the pages of my life, my mind is in a rare form; I am neither occupied with a present thought or future vision. The Lord has redeemed a difficult past so when I found myself returned to the throws of adolescence I could see His work in a time I had felt so alone.

Some of the guys after the backyard campfire.

Nearly a decade ago my life was consumed with three schools of thought; girls, my friends & football. Like your average young man, I in no way exceeded in depth or maturity of thought. Again & again, I would cycle through these three idols, consumed by them. While they did little for the glory of God they did speak to a desire that came from Him. A desire for relationship. He had written on my heart a need for a family that could only be found in Him. But if you were to tell me that ten years later I would be living in the middle of a Christ centered community & engaged to an amazing, God-fearing women I would have thought you were not in your right mind. I had no concept of 'better together, only the lie of 'I can do this alone.'

Our incredible bunch of beautiful, God fearing sisters.

After Easter service yesterday, my fiancee, her little sister & I ran into an old high school friend of mine who happened to be a football team mate as well. All the factors were there for a brief journey into my memories; a restful afternoon & a trigger to draw me back into a past but specifically back to my glory days of high school football.

Football requires community. There is no way around it. So out of all the ways God used football in my story, I am sure one of them was to remind me I could not function as an individual if I wanted to win or even participate. Team sports were something ingrained in to my life. They were something I knew & understood. Yet I always fought the reality of needing a team mate &, so, I often struggled in team sports. But the truth is I can't begin to tell you the times when I was tackled so hard I felt I certainty couldn't stand on my own again & not once in the recess of my memory was I ever laying on the ground without a hand to pick me back up. All those years of lying in the turf, mud & snow I always had a hand to pull me back to my feet. Each time I lined up for a new play I did so because I had confidence there was had a hand to pull me back up when I felt I didn't have the strength on my own.

Celebrating Jesus & community after Holly's & my engagement.

Today Jesus is building an incredible family. The pictures all over this page are only few of hundreds.

God has blessed me beyond measure with my friends & family in Christ. I can see now with each day that passes He is providing hands to pick me up. He is providing strength in a family that is His own. A family that I am a part of. A family that was formed through His work & since it was He who made it, I can do nothing to remove myself from it.

The writer of Hebrews speaks to our need for community, "Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love & good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching." (V. 23-25)

Donny & I in Vancouver Island, Canada. The end of our 'Road trip Pilgrimage.'

God is doing this daily; building the families that we truly need & forming a community that is bent on His glory. This is a family Jesus has allowed me & so many into by His grace; one that gives a hand to lift one another back to their feet & a word of encouragement that inspires us towards love & good deeds.

God is drawing us together &, because of Jesus, we are better together.