it's an open door (life)

5 hours of sleep last night wasn’t enough. My stomach hurt this morning, and I wasn’t feeling too great about my sermon, but there was no time to change it. The time had come for the Holy Spirit to work through the words given to me, and brings them to life. Today was my first time preaching all four services. I could feel it get progressively better throughout the morning. I just became more familiar with what I was saying and could improvise a little off of it. The end of my sermon was the song, “It’s Your Life” by Franscesca Batistelli. My sermon was about King Solomon praying for wisdom, and ultimately using his wisdom to become the wisest fool in the Bible. God gave him all he would need to finish strong, to walk through the door into salvation, but he made bad choices and rejected the covenant God was attempting to establish with him. The song fit in perfectly.

This is the moment.
It’s on the line.
Which way ya gonna fall?
In the middle
Between wrong and right
But you know after all.

It’s your life whatcha gonna do
The world is watching you?
Everyday the choices you make
Say what you are and who
Your heart beats for.
It’s an open door. It’s your life.

Are you who you
Always said you would be?
With a sinking feeling in your chest.
Always waiting for someone else to fix you.
Tell me when did you forget?

It’s your life whatcha gonna do
The world is watching you?
Everyday the choices you make
Say what you are and who
Your heart beats for.
It’s an open door. It’s your life.

To live the way that you believe
This is your opportunity
To let your life be one that lights the way

It’s your life.

By the time I was finished singing the song for the first time, my tally began. One service down, three to go. When I was warming up with the band before 9:30 worship, I could see Kelly crying, and barely got through the song. I knew key to maintaining composure would be to avoid looking at the Luhmann's. Serving communion proved to be the most emotional time of the entire day. I got teary at 8:00, but when the Luhmann’s and Wiedenmann’s came up at 9:30, I was sobbing. Kevin had to run and get me some tissues from the back of the church because tears were shooting out of my eyes. I had to make a few people wait until I got myself together enough to even say the words. Luckily, people were understanding and even offered hugs right then and there.

I got to stand by the doors alone and got to greet everyone as they left. Lots of tears, hugs, cards, and gifts. The surfboard I got from the staff got turned into the world’s largest greeting card. We sat it out on the patio with colorful sharpies and decided to let people sign it and write well wishes.

After lunch at Claim Jumper with the Rognlien’s, I was so wiped, I went home and slept for 2 hours before going to my last service at Good Shepherd. It has been such an incredible journey these last ten months, and I really feel as though I was able to finish strong and am leaving at a good time. I still love it in California, but know God has other things I need to complete and is pushing me to go home while it’s still good. Both the YAC and the Focus Finders seem to be in great hands. I cannot wait to see how God works through those groups of people in the coming years. All the sad goodbyes were dulled a little knowing that I’ll be in CA next July for a wedding. Here are a few of my other favorites from the day: