Last night, Kelly and I ditched the girls and went to Coconut Grove with my buddy Matt (who is moving to Kansas tomorrow…bummer) as well as Taylor and Brannon. It was a great night in one of my favorite places in Miami.
As we were having dinner, telling stories, and laughing at one another, we started reminiscing on something that had given me a passion for reading from my childhood, the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books. You read to the end of the page and rather than turning the page, you make a choice. Based on that choice, you go to one of three possible pages. Within that single book, there are many stories.
My life and the life of our church is that book, now more than ever. The decision to move to the theater caused us to take a radically new direction. We fast forwarded to a completely new story. We just finished negotiating the terms for running two services in the theater. It is finalized. It feels great to get that hammered out.
At one point today, I thought we might have been coming back to our building to pull it off. That would have been another story with a slightly different ending. It was something that we had considered as a possibility for several months now.
Our decisions are critical because our future is bright. But, as much as I feel the burden of leadership and the urgency to make the right decisions, God has it all in control. He knows our future. He has plans for the Kingdom of God here in Homestead that are bigger than I could imagine.
We are trusting Him much more fully than we trust in our own ability to navigate the waters of decision. Still, I love the "Choose Your Own Adventures" and I love dreaming about our future and working out the details to realize the Kingdom of God prominently alive in south Miami-Dade county.
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I’m right there with you bro, “Hasta La Victoria…siempre”. Count on us for anything.
-the sants
Hey TRAV, can you KEEP any friends near you (JK!)…Why is Matt moving to Kansas?
I know some great churches out that way–depending on where in Kansas he is moving…
Matt is as close as family. He and I roomed together from 1992-1996. He was in Chicago for a while when we were there and he was doing his rotations at U of Chicago.
He was one of my groomsmen. He’s seen me at some of my lowest and highest moments (and vice versa). I really couldn’t ask for a better friend than Matt. He’s the real deal. One day, one of us will be standing over the others grave. I think he’d show up anywhere on the planet to help me out. I know I would for him.
I’ll miss the heck out of him being here.
Wow! I have not thought about those books in forever. Those books were all world. Love to get my hands on one. Think I’ll hop over to Amazon. Got to love nostalgia.
I love the Choose Your Own Adventure books. But I cheated. I’d always turn the page, read the first couple paragraphs, and if I didn’t like it I would change to a different option.
Is that bad?
Too bad we can’t do that in real life…
Yeah. That’s what Taylor said she did. That’s what my wife would do. If my dad had already read the book, he would let the cat out of the bag before you got to the next page…at least that’s what he did when I was watching season 2 of 24.
Dude, I hated those books. I always either died, got captured by the Viet Kong, or thrown in jail. Apparently I need to stick to real life where I’ve only been captured by the Viet Kong.