something's out there

In a dark room in a corner of the city of Tallahassee a boy sits at his crowded desk lit only by faint glow of his laptop and a small lamp. He sits and he sighs deeply thinking on the events of the day. Nothing monumental or earth shattering occurred, but the sense that the presence of God is thickening the air he breaths and consuming everything we walk past so nonchalantly fills every cell in his body. Tonight he sits and realizes that there is something bigger than all of this. He leans back and smiles.

This evening Watermark had its first service in Fusion Cafe, a great new restaurant owned by one our friends, Robbie Joynt. Robbie is, to me, teetering on the verge of man crush, because he has been so helpful in directing us and guiding us step by step to the success of the Coffee Pub. He also offered up his restaurant for us to gather for worship on Sundays.

Anyone who knows me knows my lack of organization, and as B-Mac pointed out in A New Kind of Christian, we tend to make God out to be bigger and better versions of ourselves. I see God as a creative Genius. And I tend to see him as a bit unorganized...not in a lack of control kind of way, but in the way that one would look at a Van Gogh painting. Up close there are globs of paint seemingly isolated on a canvas of swirling chaos but from a distance it becomes a masterpiece of organized beauty and power. Tonight I feel like I stepped back and saw globs coming together.

I met a brother from this family we call our faith named Michael. He stumbled upon our blogs and simply sent a note of encouragement to me and to RJ through them. RJ and I talked about how awesome it is to see God working throughout Tallahassee and that we can find friends like Michael who feel this desire to be true disciples, true Talmidin. It is very exciting because I found someone who is as in love with Robbie Bell as I am. (Now THAT is a man crush!) Well, Michael joined us for worship tonight and it was great to meet him. Although I sadly didn't get to chat as much as I would have liked with him we found more connections than I ever would have imagined. We both know Michael Mears, who is currently director of CCF. I am really looking forward to getting to know Michael more and sharing in this journey with him because, if God is the creative Genius I believe he is, then he has given us all a canvas, a blank sheet of paper, a musical instrument, or some way to paint a picture of our spiritual journey, and we are to share our art, our lives with those around us. I look forward to hearing his art and sharing my own. God is good and he is connecting the dots in Tallahassee and it is great to be listening and being a part of it.

check out Michael's blog and say hello while you're at it.