Continued

This is still in reference to the Temporary Home series, but I decided if I numbered each one, it would get exhausting and discouraging, which defeats the point. I write today to acknowledge again the wonderful man that my great Uncle, Bill McFarling was. I am excited to know that he is in heaven. Thank you Lord for bringing him home.

My temporary home season has continued with the news that a good friend of ours, Pastor Tim Wright, has passed after battling brain cancer for almost a year. I remember going to his house about a year ago, seeing the pictures on his wall with his wife, and thinking, "Wow, after 20 some odd years together, he is still enchanted by the beauty of his wife." Anyone who had ever spent time with Tim knew he was a loving man. I admired Tim and Janice's marriage and pray that ours, while already wonderful, will grow deeper in love, as I know theirs had. Tim was an incredible man. He loved God with everything in him. He showed this by loving others; he was a reflection of the great commandment (Matthew 22:36-40). Tim was the first person to welcome me to Grace Community Church (as I am sure hundreds of people could say) back when I was a Freshman at UTA. He always had a smile on his face, even when things were rough, and they got rough. He was a thankful man, even his last year of life, through the battle, he would be thankful for each day he was given. I am thankful to have known Tim and am better for it. ( I know that Tim was an incredibly positive influence (to say the least) on Caleb. I dont have the words to say how grateful I am to Tim for having invested into him. I urge you, if you know the Wright family, to continue lifting them up in prayer. I will attend the memorial service on Friday.

During this time, I have paused my study of Daniel, and been working through Ecclesiastes. God has a sense of humor because this is incredibly applicable to me and the season. Pastor Matt Chandler has some interesting perspective on the text that I think is applicable:

"Ecclesiastes 3, starting in verse 1, “For everything...” Now, if you write in your Bible, you can underline “everything,” circle it, asterisk, star,arrow, whatever, but it's an important word here. “For everything there is a season:” If you write in your Bible, underline, circle, star, asterisk, whatever “season.” These are pretty huge points: 1) that everything 2) has a season. Let's keep reading. “...and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.” Historically, when this list is sung about or mentioned, it is viewed as things that occur in life, things that happen in life. What this list really is, is not just a list of things that happen in life, but a list of things God sends. And this is hard for us. Think of this list as a list of ingredients that God mixes together to serve His purposes in your life, in your allotted time, in your set boundary. He'll mix the flour with the sugar. Now, we don't like this. I don't like it. Like, I would rather treat this list like a buffet. “I'll take some laughter, a little bit of dancing, not too much. Still Baptist here, alright.” I mean, you could read the list. If you go through this and you kind of get to select, I mean you're going, “A time to be born. Yes please. A time to die. No thank you. A time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted. I'll take the planting. A time to kill, and a time to heal. I personally like a little bit of both of those. A time to break down, and a time to build up. I'll take the building up. A time to weep, and a time to laugh. I'd like to laugh until I weep. I'd like that kind of combination. A time to mourn, and a time to dance. This crowd would probably be split 50/50 on that. A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together. I'd like to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. I'll take the embrace. A time to seek, and a time to lose. I'll always seek over losing. A time to keep and a time to cast away.I'd rather keep. A time to tear, and a time to sew. I'd rather things be repaired than torn. A time to keep silent, no thank you. A time to speak, ah. A time to love and a time to hate. I prefer love. A time for war, and a time for peace. My preference is peace. But I don't get to choose my ingredients. I don't see well enough. See, if I could choose what I wanted, I would choose all of the good things and none of the bad things, none of the things that sting, none of the things that hurt, none of the things that bother me, none of the things that stretch me. I would take only the good. The thing is tough, God loves me too much to let that happen. See, people who are never stretched, people who never hurt, people who never mourn, they usually turn out to be self-centered, spoiled rotten, vicious people, and God loves too much to let that happen. And so, He sends, He and He alone,who sees all of eternity, decides who gets what and when they get it. And I've never met anyone who likes to eat flour, but I know a lot of people who love cake. But you can't eat the cake without the flour."