As you know, my blog posts have been few and far between during the last two months. In fact, I would not be surprised if I have had only two or three posts during that time. This is, of course, due to a variety of factors that made the last few months very difficult.
But, behind every cloud is a silver lining. Things are starting to settle down a bit, and I am finally able to "catch my breath". So, hopefully, inspiration and creativity will replace stress and busy-ness, and I will once again start cranking out blog posts.
So today, I decided to do something a little different than usual. No frisbee golf tonight...instead, I thought I'd take a walk down to the clock tower and back, and check out some of the recent changes. These changes include the new First Baptist Simpsonville building, and the new "fancier" look of downtown Simpsonville. And, I took along the digital camera.
My goal for the walk was to slow down, and see if I could notice the "little things" that usually go unnoticed. Things like spider webs, cool textures/surfaces, and out-of-the way details that I am usually too busy to see.
So here are some photos from my "seeing tour" of downtown Simpsonville:
OK, I'm no professional photographer, but I found the experience to be really fun! It was a whole new way of looking at the same old stuff I've looked at for years. Same stuff, different focus.
Sometimes in life we whizz right past the things God wants us to see. We are too busy, too focused, too stuck in the daily routine, too whatever.
Other times, there are things we see but don't really want to see, so we choose not to see them. This was the case for Cathy and I at Crossroads over the last couple years. We were seeing a charismatic shift in the direction of the church, which we didn't agree with scripturally, but we "chose" not to see it for a long time. We overlooked it, ignored it, and rationalized that it wasn't really happening. Finally, circumstances changed to where we "snapped out of it", and could no longer overlook what was happening.
Sometimes, change is so gradual, we are unable to see clearly that change is taking place. We are blinded by our proximity to the thing that is changing. Often, only those who go away and come back are able to see the changes. We have some Crossroads friends who moved away for a few years, and recently returned and began attending again. They were struck with how different the tone and direction of the church was...it was clear as crystal to them, because they were not immersed in the change itself on a weekly basis.
Over the past few weeks, Cathy and I have visited some other churches, and have enjoyed getting to "see" the way some other congregations "do church". I am excited about where God is leading us next...I believe great things are on the horizon!
Lord, give me eyes to see.
No comments:
Post a Comment