Thursday, May 19, 2011

Love in the chaos

The other day, while driving to work, God reminded me of a dream I had not long before our wedding. In the dream, Leslie was in her wedding dress and I was in my tux. We were walking to the church where we were to be married and every scene was so chaotic and busy. I remember us sitting on a park bench and being sad that we couldn't find peace and love on our wedding day. We finally got up from the bench, resigned that this is what our life would be like, and started to go the rest of the way to the church. When we were almost there we were walking past a set of doors.

There was singing coming from the other side and we had some time before we had to be at the church for the wedding, so we decided to check it out. When we walked through the doors we were at the  Passion Conference in the Phillips Arena and the song was "Our God" being lead by Chris Tomlin. We were overwhelmed with God's love and peace. I woke up with tears in my eyes (almost had tears just now thinking of the dream). God had shown me that no matter how crazy our life may get His love will always be there and the love between Leslie and me will always be there.

This past week has been one of those crazy, chaotic, and busy weeks. We worked the whole week, I even had to work that Sunday. We were off Friday and Saturday, but were on the road by 7:00 a.m. on Friday headed to Louisiana for Leslie's cousin's high school graduation. Friday night, we had to drive to her dad's house in a severe thunder storm. Heavy rain, high winds, hail, 25 mph on the interstate, the whole shebang.  We had to come back Saturday evening, and I had to be at church at 6:45 a.m. and work from 11:30 to 8:30 that Sunday.  We were exhausted.

Monday morning was when God reminded me of that dream. While I was thinking about the dream I had realized that after our crazy week, my love for my wife was stronger than ever. I love that I can truly say that I love Leslie more now than I ever have before AND that love continues to, by the grace of God, grow more and more everyday. Wow, do I love that woman.

Until then-
Did you hear about the Morgan's?

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Changes

Each one of us can look back on our lives in the last 5 years, 1 year, 6 months, heck, 1 week and see changes that have taken place. Good, bad, indifferent. Planned, unplanned. Predicted, unpredicted. Self-imposed or not. Either way you look at it, we have all seen our lives change at some point.

Recently, Matt and I both heard the Lord speak clearly to us about an important decision we needed to make in our lives. To be honest, it was something we knew we needed to do but something we were not anxious to do because we knew along with the great things that would come from this change, we would potentially lose some "things" that had given us stability to this point in our lives.

As some of you know, when I lived in Birmingham, I attended, joined and was heavily involved at Church of the Highlands. I LOVE this church. I can't tell you exactly why (at least in a a concise manner) what it is that I love but I just do. When I got my first career job in Prattville, AL I have plans to live just south of Birmingham and drive to work in Prattville which is approximately 1 hour. Four days before I was to start working, my car went nuts and it became clear that driving my car that much each week would be foolish. I made the decision to move to Montgomery (20 minutes from Prattville) and live there. When I moved to Montgomery, staying involved at Church of the Highlands was nearly impossible and honestly, as much as I love the church was not something I wanted to do. I wanted to be a part of  a church that I could easily attend and get involved. Through various people and moves of God,  I ended up at Gateway Baptist Church. From the first moment that I walked into the door at this church, I knew that this was were God wanted me for that time in my life. Now looking back, I know why (among MANY other reasons). This is where I met Matt. Cut to the present.

After Matt and I began dating, we were involved in teaching Sunday school and AWANA and we loved every minute of it. We were involved in a small group and LOVED our friends there and still do. Yet, there was something tugging in our hearts that there was something more. It has not been one specific thing that has tugged at our hearts but multiple things and often things that we could not explain.

During this time, Matt and I really felt like God was calling us to Highlands who had since started a campus in Montgomery. For me, this was hard because I wanted to make sure I wasn't just leaning that way because it was something I wanted but we wanted to make sure it was a mutual decision and ultimately a God-ordained one.

In February, we began attending the campus in Montgomery and just asked that the Lord would show us what His plans were. We attended for one month just "visiting" and by the end of that month we knew we were where we needed to be.

The hard part has been that there was nothing specific that led us away from Gateway. Other than the Lord, that is. We LOVE the people there. We LOVE the fellowship. We LOVE the worship. We just LOVE God more and want to heed his voice.

So, today we find ourselves at Church of the Highlands, Montgomery Campus. It is incredible. Sure, there are things we would prefer to be different. Isn't it that way with any church we attend? It shows our nature and keeps us longing for heaven (in my opinion). We are getting plugged in slowly and finding our niche for serving. It is good just as everything the Lord does is good.

Til Then-
Did you Hear about the Morgans?