Nostalgia

I have been up for over an hour, and like I do most mornings, I check the status on this blog to see how many readers we have had. One thing led to another and I found myself reading blogs from back in 2009. That was the year we moved to Seminole.

For the past hour I read about how God transitioned us out there, praying for and watching God provide us a home, transitioning into a new office, and three months later visiting with people in Paradise and praying with them on a Friday night around Thanksgiving. Memory after memory made. I relived each one of them in my mind. I relived the prayer time I had with my family as we closed on our house in Seminole. I relived mowing the lawn and all the people whom we had the privilege to entertain in our home. Great memories. I even read what I wrote about a chair in the office out in the pastor's office at FBC Seminole. I will never forget the first time I sat in that office chair and the weight of responsibility that fell on my shoulders. I read about a prayer time I had underneath the pulpit there and how God moved so mightily in the days that followed.

I write this blog in a different chair. I bought this office chair in 1998 when we founded NO COMPROMISE Ministries. This chair has been dragged from east Texas, to north central Texas, to west Texas and now back to north central Texas. I have prayed in this chair, written blogs and books here, studied, and read seated in this very chair.

This morning I awoke and took the few steps from my side of the bed to this office. I sat in this chair and pulled out my computer. From there I took a trip down memory lane. Nostalgia set in as I relived one memory after another. When I read about moving to Seminole and memories made there, I kept thinking to myself, it ended too soon. We made a lifetime of memories with those people in only two years. To this day I cannot believe it is over. I also read about our reunion in Paradise only three months after we moved to Seminole. I read about tears shed as I prayed in a kitchen with all of those assembled before we left that night. None of us knew that we would return and I would once again serve as pastor for many of them.

It has now been back here two years since leaving Seminole. I can still see those people in my mind and recall our last days there. Now it those people I have prayed with on back porches and in living rooms. I have been back numerous times for one thing or another. Much of my heart is still out there in the flat farm lands of windy west Texas.

I have seen God work both in me and around me at Faith Community Church. We have seen the attendance rise, fall, and rise again. We have walked this road of faith together trusting God time and time again as challenges have arisen. When I look back on how we have survived I can only say God has been our Provider. So many times people from Seminole, TX have been the source of God's provision. Even though we now have a house we are still walking by faith trusting Him for our daily supply.

Now the Edwards family has transitioned into a new life in a new home. I think of all the men and women who helped us pack and move. I think of all the prayers so that our family would one day have a home. I think of those who have stopped by the house to see for themselves and of the couple who donated their time as interior decorators to make the house our home out of hearts of love for their pastor.

I think of the sweet services we have enjoyed lately. Though the attendance has been low our spirits have been high. I think of this weekend when all Brenda's family came over for a birthday celebration. Some of them had not been here yet. We laughed, ate, and enjoyed a great time together. I am thinking of time I shared with Turner at the driving range teaching him to play golf yesterday afternoon and how the week before I did the same thing with Tanner. I watched as three of the boys played hole number five behind our backyard toward dark. So many memories.

My life is the richer for all of them. So many relationships. My heart is full because of each of them. So many testimonies. My faith is stronger because of them. So many churches. My wisdom is broader because of time spent in each of them.