My wife and I are sitting here waiting for the Symposium to start and we’ve already met our neighbor (and fellow church planter). It’s an interesting experience going to a symposium/conference in your own home town. You’re off work, and have the whole day booked with sessions and workshops, but you know you’re going back to sleep in your own bed. You know where all the good coffee shops are, you know how long it takes to get from one place to another, but you feel like you shouldn’t be this close to home. I’m not really describing it well… but it’s just a weird feeling.
I’ve perused the book table and found like 12 books I want to buy, but won’t due to the fact that it’ll take me three years to read that many books (at the rate in which I’ve been reading lately). We’ve gone to the nearby Starbucks and had a latte and a scone. The grounds at this church (First EV Free here in Austin) are very nice. They’ve made a great use of the space - it doesn’t feel austere and hyper-modern, it has a courtyard with some large trees and the architecture, though modern, doesn’t detract from the environment. I have to say I’m impressed with the facility.
I’m looking forward to seeing what God has in store for us in the coming hours. I’ll post when I can.
Hopefully, you see in these writings a man who is staying The Course and pursuing The Path amidst the pitfalls and selfish ways of being a son of Adam. I pray earnestly that my writing would encourage some of you by showing you that this journey - though arduous and sometimes tragic - is a journey of great satisfaction. A satisfaction greater than our greatest imaginings. The trials and refining fire of tribulation are to be recognized as a small shadow of the suffering of our Savior so that we can rejoice, as Peter and the disciples did, to be counted worthy to suffer for the sake of the Name.