pat loughery

So my meal is done. Yummy chicken tortilla soup. Mmm.

The bad news is that this couple is, with certainty, leaving. The hour drive is a killer for them, and they really want to be involved in serving the community in which they are now homeowners.

The good news is that there’s no subtext, I didn’t do anything to drive them off, the couple things I thought may have been a problem weren’t.

The better news is that I heard just how being in this church has changed them. How they used to think about what they needed to do to look like a Christian so that people would realize they were Christian. And now, they’re more interested in being authentic in their faith, in looking for what God’s doing around them and participating. There’s no greater blessing than hearing what God’s putting in my own heart, coming out of the mouth of somebody who’s hung out with us for a while. That’s very, very cool. Mindblowing.

So we’re going to celebrate them with the church, send them off with a blessing, make it a big deal. I think that’ll be fun. Bittersweet, but fun.

I can live with this. And, with God’s grace, the church can survive this.