ICONOCLASTIC LOVE

Anything?

"Do not be anxious about anything but in everything, by prayer and petition, and with thanksgiving, present your requests to God and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord."  Philippians 4

This morning Hayden woke everyone up at 3:00 crying.  I couldn't go back to sleep - so I felt that Father must have something he wants to share with me.

So I came to the living room and began to pray through some things that were causing little ripples of "anxiousness" and I thought - Is there a normalcy to anxiety - isn't being anxious normal.

Like -  "I'm so anxious to see you!"  -  or  - "I'm so anxious to get this over with!"  -  or  -  "I'm so anxious about being around them."  -  or  -  "Ugggh as soon as I can get this taken care of, then I'll feel much better..."

You know the scoop - anxiety is the ugly prescriptive word for dread - worry - fear - wrestlessness - discontentment - rippling inner chaos at one level or another.

Peace - trust - patience - contentment - thanksgiving - ...  aren't these better states of being?  They're not just "better" states of being - they're the Way of the Kingdom of Heaven!

You know - with my spiritual background - it's easy for me to read this text of scripture and come away with "one more sin" that I need to avoid:  anxiety.

Instead - It seems like Father isn't interested in "COMMANDING AGAINST THE SIN OF BEING ANXIOUS" - but rather, "INVITING US INTO' his much better state of living in the kingdom.

In the kingdom - it's ok to trust - it's ok to rest - it's ok to ALWAYS enjoy the now - it's ok to not know what's next - it's ok to wait - it's ok to smile and go back to bed at 4:30 in the morning - knowing that I can be thankful in the now and patient for tomorrow.

Thank you father for receiving my heart this morning and dealing with my "anything" so faithfully.

Going back to bed ...

New Routine

Today was the first weekend that our family made the 45 minute comute to Gateway for our Weekend worship experience.

Sarah thought it wouldn't be that bad of a drive and we could just read books - pray - sing - tell stories - talk - ... and that we weren't going to watch any movies on the DVD players.  (the kids watch A LOT of movies when they're in the van - so we decided to change the routine...)

Surprisingly it went pretty well.

Highlights:

1.  LATE:  We left a little late and were slightly flustered when we got in the van because we had 40 minutes to make a 50 minute drive.

2.  SCREAMING PRAYER:  We started praying out loud and the kids fought over who was going to say what they were thankful for - especially when one said what the other was going to say.

After about 5 minutes of that - and Kennedy screaming her thanksgiving out loud - we started to re-think the whole "No video" idea...

But we stuck it out.

By the time we got out of Rockwall we had successfully made it through "screaming to the Lord" prayer as a family!

3.  A CHURCH ALIVE IS WORTH THE DRIVE:  After we began to cross Lake Hubbard - Shelby started asking why we were driving so far to go to Gateway - and she thought we lived closer to it.

So I decided to start the Jenkins Family Chant:  "A Church Alive Is Worth the Drive" and we repeated it about three times until I was the only one saying it.

That didn't work.

4.  Worship and Hound of Heaven - I love Brady Boyd's style of ministry.  His message this morning "Hound of Heaven" brought me to tears twice.  You can listen to it here.

5.  Today is my birthday - so afterwards we hung out and visited with a few friends - and then went to have a good lunch together and headed back home.  We were home by 1:00 and I thought it was perfect.

The trip home was much smoother than the trip over there - so,...... we're thinking that after a few weeks they'll get use to it and the Lord will lead us in ways to make the most out of the Sunday morning trip.

I'm liking the new routine.

Driving to church with the family - arriving at the same time - leaving at the same time - eating together - and chilling all afternoon.

It's a good gig!

12 Weeks

Wow - what a summer!

12 weeks ago today - the Lord began a new fresh journey in the Jenkins Family.

Since then - we've driven thousands of miles - spent the night with dozens of friends and family - we've been all over the United States at summer camps, retreats, reunions, and with family - and the Lord has been so faithful to lead us to greater levels of peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

When we sold our house in May - we moved in with some friends for 2 weeks - then we went through 12 long weeks of travel and transition.  Sarah and the kids spent most of the summer in Kentucky with Sarah's parents and I spent most of my summer in Texas working and getting things ready for us to buy a new house/re-locate.

As you can see - the kids are really growing and are doing really well.

I've driven over 12,000 miles this summer - mostly traveling to see them as much as I could.

New Home:   ROCKWALL, TEXAS

We've officially moved to Rockwall, Texas. 

This is probably one of the most beautiful areas of all of North Texas - maybe even all of Texas.  The town of Rockwall begins on the banks of Lake Hubbard and has one of the most beautiful shorelines and Marinas in the state.  it's much like living on the coast - but without the beach and hurricanes.

Sarah and the kids have actually never seen the house - except in pictures. 

We're really close to Shelby's new school and "Most importantly", we're very close to our own private neighborhood playground and gated swimming pool.

We can't quite explain how we ended up in Rockwall - except that it's where we felt the Lord lead us to go.  We really looked into alot of different areas in north Dallas, but felt that this was the place for us to be.

 We don't know what the Lord is going to do with us here - but we know he led us here.

We were very blessed with the deal we got with our house and we love the location. 

Actually - I got all of our stuff moved out of storage and into the house... with the help of my friends the McMillan's and Odell's.  It's starting to feel like home... which is VERY NICE after being so unsettled for the past several months.

Sarah and the kids will be getting here from Kentucky this weekend.  I can't wait to welcome them into our new HOME!

New Church:  GATEWAY CHURCH

We're planning to join Gateway Church in Southlake, Tx soon.  It's about 45 minutes away - but we feel that Gateway is the place the Lord wants us to stay connected to during our transition.  We're looking forward to simply attending church as a family for a while and letting the Lord settle us in to whatever his plans are for us next.

We've been visiting there off and on for the past 10 months and feel that it's where the Lord wants us to be full time.  It will be very refreshing to get plugged in there.

We have so many new friends there and are close to several of the pastors.  They've been so very good to us.

I'm actually going to Israel with a team on August 30th for 9 days.  I can't express how much I'm looking forward to that trip - especially after such a long summer.

New Business:  UNIVERSAL FUNDRAISING

I've been working very hard with my new company, Universal Fundraising this summer.  It's finally paying off.  I'm currently in the middle of a very busy fundraising season with High School Football programs all over Northeast Texas. 

We've been very blessed with the new business and look forward to seeing what happens with it in the upcoming months.

Thanks for stopping by - no guarantees on how often I'll blog - but I'm planning to begin writing again more.