God Is In Control

Happy Easter to you even thought it's almost over. I am unwinding in a hotel room in the middle of the drive between Baltimore and Atlanta hoping to sleep longer than four hours tonight. That means you get a few minutes before I head to bed for that attempt. :)

It was a beautiful day for a drive and six hours alone in the car gives you a lot of time to ponder many different things. I found myself thinking about Jesus's followers as they awoke on what we now call Easter morning and what that must have been like for them.

Think about it - Jesus had been living and ministering with them for three years. They were all good Jewish men and for the most part believed that He was the promised Messiah. They had experienced all sorts of oppression as a nation and thought that Jesus was the one who would finally lead them to freedom.

Knowing that, it helps us maybe understand how one day they could line the streets waving palm branches hailing Him as King, then just a week later demand that He be crucified. If He was really God's Promised One, wouldn't He have saved Himself and them?

I can just picture them listening to Steven Curtis Chapman on their ipods and the words of the song, "God Is In Control":

This is not where we planned to be
When we started this journey
But this is where we are...

They're trying desperately to hold on to their faith in God's Promise, yet the facts before them seem to completely contradict everything they've ever known. Then the Sabbath approaches, Jesus is buried, and they all go home.

Dawn breaks on the first day of the new week and a few of the disciples remember Jesus talking about rising from the dead. They race to the tomb to see if He's there and are greeted by an angel. I love what the angel says.

"Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said."

They run tell their friends, they're not believed (imagine that!), others do believe, and soon Jesus actually begins to appear to them.

This is not where we planned to be
When we started this journey
But this is where we are...
And our God is in control

That is what Easter is all about. God interrupting life as it is known, disrupting the plans of individuals and an entire nation, and giving Himself so we could be His. It sounds familiar, doesn't it? Who of us hasn't had life interrupted either by our own choosing or the choices of someone else? I think that God is closest when the shock of life causes us to gasp and suck in our breath until however long it takes us to begin to exhale again. He's there in the silence, in the pain, and in the fear.

He's also in the unknown, which is where Hamp and I find ourselves once again. I've mentioned for the last few months that the corporate office decided to close their Baltimore facility. They kept Hamp on board for the shutdown process, but it became apparent quickly that the time would be shorter than we originally thought. He began to make some inquiries about job possibilities and after weeks of calls, occasional interviews, prayers, and waiting, a new destination was determined. After informing his current employer and breaking the news to our church family in Baltimore, we can now share with you that we are moving....back to Atlanta! Just in time for baseball season...well almost!



As you can imagine, we have a LOT to do because we'll be heading south at the end of April. Yep, in just a month. So this trip for me is two-fold; I get to go to the Braves home opener, but I also have to find us a place to live. We're looking for an apartment in the Cumberland Mall area or somewhere in that vicinity. City living this past year or more has ruined any chance of Hamp ever commuting a long distance to work again so we want to be closer to downtown.

While we're returning to a lot that's familiar and we won't need the GPS every time we get in the car, there will still be a lot of changes. We'll have to learn a new area to live in and it will be at least 30 minutes from everybody we know and where life was familiar. We'll be going to a new church so we'll have to meet people, get plugged in, etc. which takes time and energy.

Remember, though, that moving toward something means that you're also moving away from something. We have sweet friends and connections in Baltimore that will be very hard to leave.



Imagine still damp hair tousled about on this little boy's head and the freckles sprinkled across his nose as he scuffs his way toward me, then looks at me with sad eyes and says quietly, "I don't want you to move".

This is not where we planned to be
When we started this journey
But this is where we are...
And our God is in control