It's my third day off from working a long stretch at the hospital. I made use of the first two days with household chores, errands and grocery shopping. Today was a Goats Make Soap Co. day. I finished a custom order of wedding party favors and made four batches of our top seller- Lavender Fields Forever, and a 5 pound batch of our Original soap.
Parenthesis: I think I'm sitting next to an invisible skunk or someone in this store has beat my 13 year old son in the stinky feet department cause there's no person within 20 feet of my position at this table at B&N and I'm dying here! I may have to make this a short post. Yuck.
Tomorrow I get to go to church. I'm like Bono when it comes to church... I still haven't found what I'm looking for, but I've decided I need to commit myself to loving a bunch of imperfect people in Jesus' name whether they do church the way I think is best or not. But I do enjoy the time of sanctuary where I can sing and direct my affections and longings toward my God in harmony with the dozens of other broken people like me in the same room.
Starting in September my friend and neighbor are going to begin going to BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) on Tuesdays. I was involved in a BSF for a couple years before I had children. It was key in developing my Bible literacy. I grew spiritually so much during that time. Feeding on God's word really makes a huge difference! It's been a dry year or so for me without a church and not in the Word as consistently as I need to be. I'm really looking forward to just soaking my mind in Bible.
I've decided to go the custom order route with the soap biz. Sometime tomorrow I'll start working on putting out an email blast and re-ordering the website to reflect the coming changes. I'll finish the year with the current online store and planned soap shows, but starting in 2017 Goats Make Soap Co. with be custom, handmade, locally sourced goats milk soaps and lotions with options for custom orders and some in stock soaps online. We will be doing a couple soap shows next year but not a weekly farmers market.
During a conference at work the other day I learned of Circle The City. I'm very interested. As soon as I go to part time I plan to investigate more.
I'm reading The Insanity of God right now. Desiring to "go" as Jesus commanded to make disciples of all nations sounds glorious until your in the face to face horror of humanity's evils and no progress seems to be being made. Going can mean staying too. Staying in the inglorious marriage and head to head battles with kids. Praying for that difficult-to-work-with person and making a point to serve them in some way. There is a definite draw to leaving the mundane in exchange for the adventure of reaching the unknown and unreached. But it's not glorious. Any service can be turned upside down and inside out by pride and illusions of grandeur. But really following Jesus because you love Him and you want to go where He leads and do what He says is an adventure with sure glory in the end and sure trouble along the way. Knowing my Redeemer lives and with my eyes I shall see him and when I see him I'll be made like him... free from this sin-philic body. I long. He's worth it all.
Quieted,
Sheila
Your last paragraph is gold and expresses one of my misgivings about teen mission trips. Often the least glorious but most necessary (and hardest) service is to faithfully witness and serve right where God put us.
ReplyDeleteRe. the struggles of finding a church, we're right with you. Too bad we're 1,200 miles apart.