So Bryan preached his first sermon ever in a church this past Sunday evening. Wow! What a surreal experience to be sitting in the congregation at The Exchange in Medina, MN watching my husband preaching. I know I may be a bit biased but I think he did an amazing job! He spoke about Psalm 146 and he used an amazing Facebook analogy to do so...complete with slides depicting our facebook friend, The Psalmist's profile page. If you have not listened to it and you'd like to hear it, check out the link at the end of this post...but to summarize he spoke about how God uses people to bring redemption to a broken world. At the end of his sermon, he started to talk about his/our own story. For those of you who don't know, our story is not without some pretty low valleys. It was about 8 years ago that we were not sure our marriage was going to last. As a matter of fact, it seemed that all hope was lost...almost. It was then that we found Woodcrest (our church in MO) and there we rediscovered God through the amazing people there...and through our families. It was a difficult and slow journey back to good from that terrible place we were in when we first walked through those glass church doors. As we went through our separation and reconciliation, I had a good friend and mentor at work named Tom that met with me regularly to listen, talk and pray. Not too very long after Bryan and I had begun our long climb out of the valley, I shared with him that Bryan seemed to be very interested in learning more about theology. "Wouldn't it be crazy," I vividly remember saying to Tom, "if someday Bryan were to go to seminary and be in ministry." You see Tom knew the depth of the brokeness that Bryan and I were trying to rise from...and hear me when I say, it was pretty deep. As I sat in church this past Sunday night with tears streaming down my face and listened to Bryan preach and recall our story in hopes it would serve as an example to others that God can and will and has used some pretty terrible circumstances and redeemed them for good, I kept feeling what a Full Circle Moment I was experiencing from the moment I spoke those words to my friend Tom so many years ago to now. God is good and amazing, my friends!
Hear me when I say God can redeem your story too if you are in a valley. No matter how low. Reach for him and pray the words of one of my favorite verses (Romans 8:28) and ask God to work all things together for the good of those who love him and to use your life for his purposes. I have faith He will! But watch out...because you never know where it will lead. : ) One thing is for sure, neither Bryan nor I have ever felt more purposeful than now...as we fulfill what we truly believe to be our God ordained calling.
God bless...
Link to Bryan's Sermon
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| Woodridge Church hosts The Exchange on Sunday nights. |
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| Woodridge Church |
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| Bryan and I sitting on the steps next to the stage where he spoke...enjoying our Full Circle Moment! |
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