Yesterday we did a church service at the local long term care facility that our church, The FreeWay, partners with. I spoke about Psalm 105:5, where it says, "Remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he uttered"; and I said something about how there is strength for the here-and-now, in remembering the ways God's been at work in our lives in the past. Today, the day after, I'm having one of those preacher moments where you sort of hear the words coming out of your own mouth as you said them, and it's like they're being preached directly at you (any preachers in the room will know what I'm talking about). Anyways, I thought it wouldn't hurt to put my money where my mouth is a bit, and spend some time reflecting on the unique and particular ways God met me, and ministered to me this last year.
Here, then, is a brief look back on some of the important God-moments of my 2014:
January 5: A three-month medical leave from ministry begins. In what would mark one of the lowest points of my life in ministry, but also one of the most formative, I went through a period of burn-out and emotional exhaustion at the start of 2014. I've shared a bit about it before, and intend to talk more specifically about it in the coming months, but for now I'll just say that this was one of those walking-through-the-valley-of-the-shadow kind of experiences where sometimes it felt like God was the only strong thing in a violent storm of instability, and other times I couldn't see him for trying.
April 1: My first official day back at work. So, after 3 months of finding out that I wasn't really who I thought I was, and discovering who I was after all, 3 months of healing and rebuilding and self-discovery, it was time to get back in the saddle. The first day back at the FreeWay after such a dark time, and the embrace and encouragement and care of God's people that I felt that day, was an object lesson in all the best things about Christian community.
April 10: S.A.S.S. Club Recital: One of God's big gifts to me in 2014 was the opportunity to get involved as a parent volunteer in a song-writer's club at my daughter's elementary school. I'd go and listen to these talented kids sing songs they wrote, then help them set them to music. The April 10th recital was where the kids invited friends and family to hear their work. They say that volunteering will increase your life expectancy and lower your risk for a whole slough of diseases. I expect this is true. If my experience can be taken as a case study, it will also broaden your heart and open your mind and take you outside of yourself in profoundly healing ways.
May 18: Participating as a Speaker at the FMCiC General Conference. I had the honour of speaking this year at our denomination's General Conference, at a session called "Love is an Orientation." I won't say much about it here, except that it was a deeply moving experience, one of those times speaking where you become profoundly aware of the Holy Spirit's presence, in the moment, saying through you what you could never say on your own,. If you're interested, you can read the paper I presented here.
June 6: The 20/40 Concert. This year was both mine and my wife's 40th birthdays, and also our 20th anniversary (yes, we really were only 20 when we got married). To celebrate, we held a concert of some of the songs I'd written during my leave (the inspiration to start writing songs again was another gift that came along with volunteering at the song-writing club). Good friends, good food, good music and lots of fun.
June 15: Reading The Book of Awesome. I've already blogged about this one here, so I won't repeat myself, except to say that God really ministered to me through this (almost embarrassingly) frothy book and the repentant glimpse of my profound ungratefulness it left me with.
October 7, 2014: A New Sign for the FreeWay. This probably shouldn't have been as big a God-moment as it was; but then again, for all its being a spiritual temple, not a physical one, still, the church is a concrete community and these concrete signs of our life together are important. We've been trying to establish a ministry centre in Oshawa for a while now, and seeing that sign go up, it felt like a new chapter was starting for the FreeWay.
December 30, 2014: Releasing inversions. You can see this post for the details, but recording this project with a group of talented musicians and good friends, especially given the circumstances of the writing, ministered to me on a number of levels. God is good, and he's able to bring all sorts of beauty out of broken things.
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