The Place Between the Crazies

It's funny to be surprised when your faith turns out to be well-placed.

Have you ever had this happen? You pray, trust, believe, hope, throw your life out there on the line and then BOOM! God does something incredible and you find yourself surprised? Almost like your faith is really small and God's grace really is just that overwhelming?

This happened to me yesterday.  One of the things this journey of Hopesprings into Sioux City was predicated upon was a deeply held faith that Hopesprings in Bangor would be able to survive thrive in the transition and that Hopesprings in both places would be able to move forward in a healthy direction. A faith that God had something bigger in mind for everyone. A faith that we were stronger than we felt, more ready than we felt, more able than we felt.

Yesterday we got the happy news that the guy checking out the lead pastor position in Bangor this past weekend said yes to the wild ride that is Hopesprings. If the people of Hoepsprings in Bangor accept him, it looks like we have a new lead pastor in Bangor! (All of the feedback I have been hearing is extremely positive.) 

Now the joy in this post is a hair premature given not everything is set in stone yet, but I am willing to see my little faith grow a bit given what is happening and how things are moving. This is huge. 

While we had faith going into the transition, there was (is?) a ton of fear crouching at our heart and mind-doors. It was like jumping off of a cliff into some water...we have faith we are going to be fine (or we wouldn't jump), but we are screaming the whole way down.

I believe this is a growing, healthy faith.  Gone is the swagger of certainty, and we carry with us very real fears. There is no brazen spit thrown in the face of the fear...because we are really scared. But faith is jumping, sometimes screaming, into the unknown. 

If we weren't afraid, we would be crazy.
If we didn't have the faith to jump, that would also make us crazy. 
So we do the least crazy thing and trust God.

It is a pretty wild place to live, this Place Between The Crazies.  It can make you crazy sometimes. But hey, it turns out, once again, our faith is well-placed.  We don't place it in a leader, in a happy ending, in money or stuff or "sucess" or ourselves or anything else but the Kingdom of God taking its next step in our lives and the world around us.  We place our faith in Jesus, in His life invading all mess and turning it upside-down. In the one who began and makes our wobbly faith more complete by the hour.