I'm Alive! - well sort of - Tired but Alive!

Tears can mark happiness and sadness. On Sunday, tears marked happiness for me. I attempted to explain it but it verged on impossible to do so.

Our first gathering at our building seemed impossible at times - a dream, a ridiculous one. Sunday afternoon I was finishing up stenciling some floors for our 5pm launch. Obviously we couldn’t have a launch without stenciled floors. No ceiling, one bathroom, but these floors will be stenciled!

At 3pm I ran home and tried to scrub off the evidence of my last minute painting adventure. At 4 pm, I rounded up my kiddos and drove them the all too familiar 1.1 miles to the builiding (now affectionately called the Hub.) Yes, there was fighting between the 4 year old and the 12 year old on the way just to make it feel like a normal trip to church. I believe I said something like, “Adalynn would you act like you are 12 and just agree with her.” Adalynn was determined that come hell or high water Avriel would know that she was right about whatever minute detail they were loudly discussing.

I ran around finishing last minute stuff, like putting masking tape over the part of the sandwich board sign that said the wrong service time. We only had masking tape so I had to put several layers realizing that masking tape is see-through-ish. Also realizing we didn’t have any trash cans not caked in mud, paint, etc. I had to run home to retrieve one.

I ran downstairs to greet wondering if anyone was going to “buy what we were selling.” We’ve all been there, right?

At 5pm I finished greeting and ran up the stairs to the first notes of the first worship song in our very own space. The room was packed with familiar faces which made my heart soar. 57 total which is "busting at the seams" attendance for us in Utah County! Needless to say when I went up to take up the offering, I had to hold myself together a bit.

We finished with an amazing meal as usual. I stood and served the meal on the floor I stenciled that afternoon and had another Wow-I-can’t-believe-this-is-actually-happening moments.

I look down at my hands as I type and see scars and callouses on my hands from ripping out carpet and multiple other renovation adventures. There were a few times during the renovation that I just had to go home and take a mental and physical break. Money was tight and volunteers were physically spent at times. So I have to say that renovating 3500 square feet in a little over 3 months seemed a bit ridiculous. In my mind, it has taken us a year.

I guess when you've put your blood, sweat, and tears into something, it means more, and therefore you are more emotional about it. Pounding nails, pulling out staples, painting till the cows come home, and scrubbing it all to a shine wasn’t the only reason I was emotional yesterday. The Lord spoke very clearly to me months ago that we needed a physical presence in Orem, Utah. Maybe its akin to stepping into the promised land. He is ridiculously amazing isn’t he. I shouldn’t be shocked when He comes through as always, but I drop the ball all the time. In fact a lot of the time I can’t even catch the ball in order to have the option to drop it so I don’t always understand His I-never-drop-the-ball-ness fully.

So you will be hearing more from me now, which may excite some and bore others, but here I am with more wrinkles and more scars ready to tell my story.