Shapes revealed

A little while ago I blogged about how God is revealing things like shapes in the mist that become clearer over time. Here's a concrete example of several seemingly unrelated things revealing God at work, and that it is God who will build this community and not me.

First, in late summer, someone fell away from The River, in an unfortunate but understandable situation. I supported her doing that, but I also knew God wanted us to stay in touch. She did too. Neither of us knew why, but we both knew God wanted us to keep in touch. So we did, and we waited.

Second, in early fall, when we started planning our gatherings, we settled on Sunday from noon-2 as the best time. This would not work for one of our key leaders, and we knew that. But he agreed that if it was best for everyone else, then we should do it, and we would wait and see what God had in mind.

Third, we gather in Clusters, for awhile we have only one and not long ago I started feeling this poking in the back of my head saying "Start another one." OK, fine, so I prayed and asked God where it would be, who would lead it, and who would come. My response? Nothing. Silence. But then it would come again, "Start another cluster." And I'd pray again. And still nothing. This was going on for a couple weeks, with no resolution.

Four, I knew that what we were doing did not meet the spiritual needs of the young adults who had expressed interest. I knew something needed to be done, but I didn't know what, only that what we were doing wasn't working.

Then I met John. John came into my life by the power of the Holy Spirit and in the space of just a half hour conversation, all four pieces fell into place. That poking in my head became a still, small voice that said "This is it." Not a shouting, not a roaring, just a still, small voice telling me that this was what God had in mind. John wanted to host a cluster at his home. One for young adults. It was close to the home of the woman who had fallen away. It was at a date and time for our leader who couldn't come on Sunday. It was all there.

The more I get into this journey, the more I see God at work, and the more amazed I am. God is putting the pieces before us, God is putting them together, and it's just been an awesome and amazing ride. I can't wait to see what God is going to do next!