Refuge for the Refuse

We took a CR road trip this weekend. There was an opportunity to present “CR Sunday” at our sister campus in Lone Pine and we all jumped. And the Enemy pounced.

I was so excited to have the opportunity to share our ministry with the people in Lone Pine. I’m admittedly biased, but I think that everyone could benefit from CR. Our service on New Year’s Eve went so well I thought this would be amazing. And it was, but it was not without its own set of issues.  I made assumptions about transportation that caused problems for some of my team. I made assumptions about the venue that caused problems for some of my team. I made assumptions about lunch that caused problems for my team.

That stinky old devil did he best to sneak into every crack that I allowed to open. He seems so comfortable in the cracks. Now here’s where a blog lets me down. If this were a movie I’d put a cool transition piece right here. Humor me and imagine wiggly lines right now… This morning I went and cleaned up a parking lot for a local business. No job is too small for me 😛 Anyhow, the thing that I noticed was how many cigarette butts I found in the cracks of the concrete and pavement. Even with strong winds for the past 24 hours not all of the trash got blown away. Those cracks provided a bit of refuge for the refuse. I could have ignored them, but what good would that do? Sure, it was hardly noticeable at a glance from afar, but close inspection revealed almost 100 cigarette butts. 100 this week means 200 next. The arithmetic is simple. Eventually the things that hide in the cracks will spread into the rest of life. (wiggly lines again…)

How did we clean out the cracks of our lives this weekend? We addressed the problems when we saw them. One of my leaders challenged me on the lunch plans and we got things out in the open. No hard feelings, plenty of hugs. One of my other leaders challenged me on our travel arrangements and we got things out in the open. No hard feelings, plenty of hugs. One of my people stepped up when there was a gap in our service coverage and delivered a great altar call. No hard feelings, plenty of hugs. Are you seeing a pattern here? The enemy loves to get into my life and try to divide and destroy. God loves to find to scraps and junk in those cracks and clean them out. But He goes even further than that. He gives me the tools to fill in the gaps so the junk doesn’t find a cozy home to try to put down roots. Call it Holy Spackle or God’s Goo, I just don’t care, He makes it work. And with those cracks cleaned and repaired, I find myself able to…

Rise Up!!!