Made in Richmond

Go here to see why my church is awesome.

Nothing chokes me up more than seeing a child with his eye closed tight, face turned upward, leading a group in prayer.

Go here to read a new blog from our church, Franklin Street Community. I’m currently the only one posting, but hopefully that will change as people from FSC see it.

If you go to FSC and want to contribute something, gimme a shout at franklin.street.community@gmail.com.

Seriously, email me. We want to make people *want* t come to the church, not run for the hills what with all of my babbling (jk, the babbling is kept to a minimum, except for when I imagine James Murphy feverishly writing part of the New Testament).

We had our graduation ceremony for the kids today.  We have this little girl whose father is on his second tour in Iraq.  Apparently he had recently been talking to his wife about how he has missed so much in the lives of his girls.  Well, her teacher (my mentor) was having none of that.

As this little girl was about to walk up to the podium to receive her certificate, a cell phone rang.  Her teacher said into the microphone, “Hold on.  I need to get this.”  She picked up the phone and said, “Who would you like to talk to?  Oh yes, she’s right here.”  She then handed the phone over to the little girl whose face had crumbled into sobs (along with everyone else in the gym).  She knew exactly who it was: her dad calling from Baghdad.  Her teacher had arranged it for this girl’s mother to text message the father when her name was about to be called.  By the grace of God, that phone rang just as she stood in the center of that room, ready to walk up.  She held the phone so her dad could hear her name called and the room exploded into applause.  All of the teachers were crying (not just tearing-there was ugly crying going on, at least on my part) and all of the kids were so excited.

It was a perfect, perfect moment and one she and her family deserved.  I will never, ever forget it.  What an incredible way to finish out the year.

This hymn gets me every time. Particularly this verse:

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

Either I sing it louder than anyone in church or I can’t get the words out at all because they get me so choked up. I think I love this verse so much because is what I have the hardest time grasping. Probably because when I forgive people, I don’t *really* forgive them for a while. Dr. Phil would say I’m a “scorekeeper” because I tend to log people’s mistakes in my mind and hold on to them for a long time. I can’t believe that with all of the mistakes I’ve made and continue to make, big and small, that someone actually forgives me totally and completely.