Will it stand the test of fire?

I sat down at the computer tonight to play what felt like a few hundred games of solitaire while Rachael ate her second dinner. Solitaire helps to pass the time as the little one savors each drip. I often find myself at 4 or 5 in the morning stacking clubs and hearts, etc for a half hour feed. But tonight the question popped into my mind, “Is what I’m doing going to stand the test of fire?” The ultimate answer resulted in a closed solitaire window and some more exalting prayer and study work.

Matt and I had a conversation on the car ride home. A few months ago Matt and I decided to become more intentional about investing in friends’ lives through our church. And since then we rejoice in having a few closer friends. No, they are not our projects. We just wanted them to be more of a part of our “outside of the church building” lives. We greatly value our friends and enjoy the last minute plans and freedoms of neighborhood walks and game nights with their families.

But tonight’s car conversation revolved around growing with our friends. Our church has this dilemma of not being a relationally connected church with the “young adult” population. It’s funny but there really are a few couples in our church between Matt and my ages and 50. So we had an idea and I’m really quite excited about it. We’re hoping to have a weekly get-together with a few dear friends in order to share life together. We’d like to do dinner together and share a time of short devotion or Christian comedians or whatever other creative way of exhorting each other and encouraging each other’s growth. Nothing too high maintenance or requiring of childcare – just an opportunity to love on each other. We’re not sure how receptive others will be to the proposition. But really when it all came down to it, we’d be more than blessed to step up to foster deeper, Christ-centered friendships amongst the “young adults” of the church. So what better way than to open our home and encourage our friends to open their homes for a nomadic group of life-sharing friends.

We’ll see how this all goes. But we’ll never know if deeper friendships can be accomplished unless we try. But the ultimate point is not to merely share in friendship, but to spur each other on toward Christ. I really hope this can be accomplished through a casual weekly gathering. We’ll see.

– May God get all the glory. –

Yesterday at ten til 7pm our heat was turned on. And there was MUCH rejoicing.
And I report to you cyberworld that this morning I am sitting in a tshirt in the office.
Oh the marvels of heat.
As for the lowest temp reached in the house during the waiting process: 51 degrees.
As for the highest temp reached in the the house during the waiting process: 76 degrees (yay for space heaters).
So for those of you who were praying and ever so helpful in offering showers and sleeping space, we thank you all greatly for your love and hospitality. And to celebrate the slow return to normal last night, there was the most relaxing warm bath I can ever remember taking followed by a good, warm sleep in our familiar bed.

And there was MUCH rejoicing!