Have you ever felt like you're living and doing exactly what you're supposed to be living and doing?

I don't mean that your life is easy. I don't mean there is never any challenge or stress. I don't mean that everything is going your way.

I do mean that you feel perfectly content and at peace with where you're at, because you feel God placed you right there. Right now. "For such a time as this."

That's how I feel right now. It's an amazing feeling.

We really feel like every place we've lived (7 states, 9 zip codes/residences, 14 years), every church we've been a part of, every experience we've had.... has led us to right here where we are.

State 1: The start of us. The figuring out what we want, what our goals are, our foundation.

State 2: Our "church" here was at Jon's work. Jon worked with troubled and troubling youth in a residential setting. The facility had a church on campus - one of the most beautiful campuses and chapels I've ever experienced. It was here that we saw the authenticity of worship, the creativity of youth, and the pure joy and freedom experienced by those who have been extended grace. These kids are "the worst of the worst" according to society, many of whom commited terrible crimes. Yet they worshipped together, wrote the services, led the songs - every Sunday was so amazing. Grace abounds.

State 3: This is the first church where we I experienced a true "teaching" Pastor. He made the Bible come alive. I took copious notes each Sunday, bought sermon series on tape (yes, just dated myself -- cassette tape). I eagerly looked forward to each Sunday, to learning, to growing. He had an incredible gift for providing context to scripture, setting the history, and bringing it right back to the present. It was an incredible faith growing time for me.

State 4: We found our "family" at this church. Small group became an essential part of life. We'd participated in small groups before, but it really just felt like bible study versus a close personal relationship with them. Our small group this time around became our closest most trusted friends. It's now 7 years behind us, and they're still our closest friends and receive us as family with each visit. We knew that moving forward, small groups had to remain essential as we set up new homes.

State 5: We struggled in this state on many levels. It was a challenging and "dry" season in many ways. Despite that, it was also a time when I experienced immediate and obvious response to prayer over and over and over again. I was so grateful that God made Himself very obvious to me in a time that was full of doubt, loneliness, and challenges. As always, He proved Himself faithful. The lessons I learned about prayer during this time were invaluable.

State 6: This was our most trying state. Our most challenging time. It was full of stress, "wandering," loneliness. Yet we learned some very important things there, too. We will never again take for granted a strong church family. For 3 years, we church-hunted, but in the middle of the Bible belt, failed to find a church home. We were unable to find a small group. Our church life was lacking and it left a huge, sad hole in both of us. Despite that, what we experienced fully there was a new perspective on "the least of these." The non-profit world in that community was amazing. The community as a whole was very giving, charity-minded, and focused on serving. It broadened our perspective on how to serve, and convicted us even more strongly on the importance of not only our service, but also making that opportunity available to our kids.

State 7: Here we are now. Our sweet spot. As I've said before, we prayed about where we should go to church, and the church we were led to is pastored by a man who mentored under our pastor from State 3. Amazing. Historically we've visited churches where the pastor was good, but the worship or small groups were lacking. Or the small groups were consistent but the music was terrible and the pastor just mediocre. Or in some cases, the pastor wasn't right for us at all. We struggled to find a church where all the pieces fit together for us. Caveat to all of that -- we're a "consumer" society and too often we shop churches like we do groceries -- what can THEY do for ME instead asking how WE can serve THEM. But that's a completely different topic....

Anyway... so the pastor is awesome here. He's completely authentic. He speaks Truth. He teaches - provides the historical context of the Biblical passages and applies it to today. He's as imperfect as the rest of it and is amazed by the grace that we all receive. The messages always resonate. The music is seriously top-notch (very loud, too, but that's fine with us). The children's ministry is thriving. The small group network is alive and growing. And we're serving. Wow, the fire for serving here -- "the least of these" -- tutoring at an inner city school (we have 150+ tutors), extreme home makeovers and yard crashing takes place annually also in the inner city, building backpacks for an entire elementary school, filling stockings for an entire elementary school, festivals to outreach to the community. More important: a staff with a vision to spread the Gospel of Christ to the city. We've just scratched the surface, and the ideas just keep coming.

It's so incredible to be a part of the movement. The peace that comes from living in "the sweet spot" of where Christ would have us - a huge blessing.

My prayer is that my eyes, my heart, my ears remain open to the Word of the Lord so that I can move where He sends me. I kinda like it here... I'd like to stay. :)

Why are we always surprised when God shows up big?

We know He can.

We know He does.

For me, I think the surprise comes not from God showing up big, but because He has allowed me to witness it. The “big” moments I always attribute to someone else. I always seem to hear about them, but not experience them.

Lately, I’ve been so incredibly blessed to experience them.

We began attending our new church the weekend after we moved to our new city. It was an instant “fit” and we felt fortunate to find it. It was as if God was saying, “You’re going to have some challenges, but I’ll give you a church and you’ll feel My presence there. Know that I’m with you through it.”

Easter 2011 came shortly after we moved. The Easter service kicked off a “Be Audacious” series, speaking of having Audacious Faith – believing that God will do what He promises, trusting for Him to do amazing things. During that series, Pastor Paul spoke about our sphere of influence. At one service, he had us all write the names of people with whom we associate – family, friends, co-workers, students, baristas.  We each daily touch the lives of multiple people.

From that list, from that Sunday, our church of 500 came up with a list of 5400 people within our “Sphere of Influence.”

And that became our number: 5400.

It was announced that for Easter 2012, we would be renting out the biggest, most visible, most well-known park in the city. And we would be praying for the rest of the year for the 5400 people who would join us – after all, that is the quantity in our sphere of influence.

At the beginning of the Easter season, we were surprised to enter into a dark church – nothing on stage, no band – just a lone guitar and he was joined by an Easter Bunny…who happened to be our pastor! (Yikes!) The “Unexpected” series teaser was upon us.

That very day, 3 charter busses were waiting out back and the entire church loaded up the bus, watched a pre-recorded video sermon from the pastor, and we drove to the park where our Easter service would be held. That day we walked and prayed through the park, writing the names of those in our sphere of influence on pieces of bark scattered in the flower beds throughout the park.

Four weeks later was Easter. No one really knew what to expect. We had been praying for 5400, but would that become reality?

God showed up. Why were we surprised?

And of course, God being God, He had to show us that we could have believed for even more. Not only did 5400 people show up – over 5600 people showed up!

Unexpected.

That was the title of the series that kicked off on Easter Sunday. What an amazing thing to be a part of.

The "Unexpected" series concluded yesterday, Sunday, May 6, with the most powerful and amazing and mind-blowing service I’ve ever witnessed. I’m still absolutely in awe. I even broke out my least favorite word because it’s so overused. But it was very much appropriate to describe yesterday.

EPIC.

Yesterday morning was a top-secret, “unexpected” service. People came into church as they normally do, only the windows were black, so no one could sneak a peek.

Our church is pretty untraditional (but biblically spot on), and instead of a baptismal font, we have a huge swimming pool that we use for baptisms typically twice per year. Our baptisms are usually announced well in advance so people can prepare themselves, invite family and friends, bring a change of clothes, etc. We just had a baptism on Palm Sunday. No one was expecting to walk into church to see the baptismal pool.

Yet there it was.

Pastor Paul preached from Acts 8 about Phillip and the Ethiopian eunuch explaining the passage from Isaiah that he was reading. As their carriage rode through the desert, they came upon water, and in verse 36, the eunuch said to Phillip “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?”

And with that, Pastor Paul jumped from the stage into the pool. Clothes and all.

He proceeded to remove all the barriers and excuses that people may have for why they shouldn’t get baptized that very moment:
- No change of dry clothes? Well no problem, we’ve got a shirt, shorts, and even undergarments for you to change into.
- Concerned about your hair? We’ve got combs, ponytail holders, detangler spray, and hairspray.
- Make up may run? Baby wipes are in each restroom and will clean you right up!
- No stink stop? Well we’ve even got spray on deodorant for you.

As Pastor Paul is explaining all of this during the first service, one man climbs the ladder and jumps in the pool – jeans, shirt, leather shoes and all. Even Pastor Paul was blown away! Another man followed that one – 2 people in their street clothes didn’t even wait for their change of clothes.

At the first service, 31 people “took the plunge,” publically declared their faith, and were baptized into Christ.

The church had planned for 40, so they had to make an emergency store run to restock supplies between services! What an incredible “problem” to have!

During the second service, 21 more people were “buried with him through baptism, and raised to live a new way of life through Jesus Christ.” -- 52 people in total.

Absolutely amazing, awesome, incredible, humbling, powerful, moving – amazing day!

Amazing God.