One Lesson From New Orleans

It's been a long week, and my emotions and thoughts have been all over the map and back. This is my first attempt to communicate them outside of my head, so bear with me.

I'm so grateful that when we asked for feedback from our Community Groups about the financial situation and the announcement about staffing cut backs that so many of the groups took the time and made the effort to share their thoughts and feelings. We have received a tremendous amount of feedback, and for all of you who shared, I want to say, "thank you!" As difficult as it was to read some of it, it had to have been difficult to share, so again, thank you very much for making the effort. I believe God is going to use this to benefit all of us.

One of the whispers I heard from God while in New Orleans last week seems to relate to what we've been experiencing here in our FBC family. When I started in on the project to clean up and prepare the fireplace mantle, someone walking by stopped and said, "Remember, you need to go with the grain of the wood." At first, I was startled by that, since there were so many layers of paint on the mantle one could hardly tell that it was even made of wood, much less see or think about the grain of the wood. However, there was much truth in what they said. Getting the cracked, mildew stained paint off was not the only thing that needed to happen to restore the mantle to it's former beauty. We could take off the paint, but if we tore up the wood underneath, we'd ruin the whole project.

As we slathered paint stripper compound on, then worked to pull off the paint layer by layer, I kept hearing that whisper in my head: "Work with the grain." After several hours, I began to realize that it wasn't just my new friend's good advice about the project, it was God's good advice about our church family. There is a grain in the wood of our church, and while it's not always visible, tangible or directly noticeable, nevertheless it is there. And no matter what the hoped for outcome of the work, when we go against the grain, we risk damaging the wood.

Despite my best intentions and my best efforts, I believe I have led in some areas that have gone against the grain of the wood here at FBC. For that I must apologize. There will need to be some repair work done in relationships, and there will need to be some more apologies given, but I want you all to know that I'm sorry for any damage I've caused, and I'm working on how we repair it. Your feedback, whether it was meant to blister or to bless, has been very helpful. Together, I believe we can continue to build what God wants built here in the Portneuf Valley.

See you on Sunday!