TATTOO on the HEART

Reconnecting…

// February 26th, 2009 // OUT LOUD THOUGHTS

Last night I got the chance to drive south to hang out with my friends from the South. It couldn’t have come too soon. We moved in this area one week before Christmas. And even though we’re only living about a half hour from where we were, 30 miles can sometimes seem like a million. I wouldn’t have thought that a few months ago. I just assumed that we’d carry on in deep connections with friends – only difference is my house is a few blocks from the beach and I have a slightly modified zip code. I guess I wasn’t prepared for the fact that moving to a new area of San Diego is quite literally like starting all over again. You create new driving patterns back and forth from work, shop at a new grocery store (or 5 or 6 in our case in search of the best prices), put your trash out on a different day, and you, at first, don’t even consider how different your life really is. While I’ve fully embraced this change and Jessica and I have fallen in love with this place called Ocean Beach, we’ve found our social lives have once again been a casualty.

It’s difficult to fathom that with all the modern advances with instantaneous communication and the simplicity of finding people these days that you could possibly lose touch or disappear. But it happens.

Last night was needed. I love watching the smirk on Duke’s face everytime he introduces me to someone. He likes to tell stories and he can’t hide the smile on his face as he contemplates the ending that might very well be 10 minutes in the making. It makes me smile as well.

Last year I connected with Jamie a local pastoral/church planting area coordinator here in San Diego. I shared this vision of reaching Ocean Beach. He told me he loved the passion. He was excited about the prospect and told me that not a lot had been going on locally with church planting. He shared that 2 churches were getting ready to be started by people from out of state – one in Carlsbad and one by a couple of families in National City. He invited me to check out the regional conference that was happening in Anaheim. I went back and forth a little over the next week and when I’d finally decided that I’d attend, a couple of annoyances (and I’ll leave it at that) almost made me decide to say “screw it.” But for whatever reason (and I’d say Reasons more than I knew at the time), Jessica insisted that I needed to go.

At the conclusion of the first gathering of the conference, Jamie treated his staff as well as the poor lowly church planters to Chili’s. When we arrived at the restaurant, Jamie ushered me into this room that had 60% of the tables in the restaurant shoved into a mock Last Supper table. He told me to just grab a seat. So somehow I shuffled between the chairs and the window behind me trying to find a space to sit. And then I looked up and right across from me looking me straight in the eyes were faces that I honestly didn’t think I’d ever see again. Now I make jokes about how you can never get away from people in the South (particularly New Orleans), but I was floored to see Duke and Marie there with Chris in tow. Simulataneously we were like, “No way!” Followed by the characteristic “What are you doing here?”

And after a few short minutes we realized that we were all here for the same reason. These were the National City church planters that Jamie had mentioned. It never dawned on him that we’d possibly know one another. For the next hour plus we reminisced about old times when I was youth pastor in New Orleans leading a regional camp that 2 of Duke and Marie’s and 1 of Chris’ sons had attended. And we traced the steps that had let as all to the same table at Chili’s in Anaheim, CA.

I think that was the first time that smirk came across my face. I already had a sense that God was doing something special with us, but when you see Him go through all the trouble of bringing people together down very different paths 3000 miles from where they used to live within 100 miles from each other, that’s just phenomenal.

The friendship with Duke & Marie and Chris & Jan has been air to our spiritual lungs. I think I always believed that relationships were important, but I think I truly underestimated them up to now.

Last night we smoked cigars, tried to outdo one another with random off-the-wall stories, talked about this dream of God’s kingdom, ate cold store-bought pizza, and witnessed a healing first hand. It was all there. It was completely normal while at the same time supernatural as we experienced the presence of God there.

It’s one thing to have friends. It’s quite another to share a spiritual dynamic – literally a Person and a mission. It’s remarkable to go from 0 to 175mph internally as you feel this tangible Force give way in your being.

I came home just before midnight tired but vibrant with stinky smoke clinging to the fibers in my windbreaker. My breath was sour as I kissed my wife shortly after walking in the door. And minutes after getting the layers of second hand off of me, I crashed into my pillow with a smirk on my face.