This week was monumental for our family. We put our house on the market! This is just one step closer to moving to Austin. We are so excited about the new season that God has for our church and overjoyed that we get to play a part in God’s plan for the Austin area! For the last few weeks, we have been getting our house ready to sell. Although this can be a tedious process of purging and painting, for me it has been somewhat nostalgic. One day I was rummaging through some old boxes and came across old photos and memorabilia, and I found a picture that took me back in time. I began to reminisce about all the places I have lived. I can barely remember living, as a tiny tot, in a tiny two bedroom house in the tiny town of Cameron, Oklahoma. After my parents divorced, my mom and I moved to Tahlequah, Oklahoma so she could finish college. There, we lived in a low-income apartment. I can distinctly remember the playground at that complex where I played. I also remember going to a community center every time there was a tornado in the area. That was exciting!
After my mom graduated, we moved back to Cameron where she began teaching, and I began kindergarten. Mom bought a two bedroom, brown and white trailer that we placed right in the middle of town. We were so proud of our trailer. For all I knew, it was a castle, and I was a blessed little princess. We didn’t have much, but that “house” was made a home. I rode my bike all around town, I climbed the small tree in the yard, and I walked to my Grandparent’s house, to school and to church.
Taking this walk down memory lane brings to mind the beautiful song by Miranda Lambert called The House That Built Me. I think about how God has ordered my steps all of my life. I think about how he has used not just houses and buildings to make me who I am today but amazing, loving people who have built me over the years. I can’t help but think of how vital God’s House was, and still is, in the building process of my life, character and destiny.
God’s church is not made up of buildings; it’s people who build hope in others’ lives. It’s not an organization; it’s a living, breathing organism that worships the Risen Savior. The church is not a house only, but it’s a home where families unite and form the Bride of Christ! I am so thankful to be a part of such a life-giving house, namely Celebration Church. Celebration Church is in the building business, and God is the CEO. Not only do we build hope in the lives of the hopeless, but God also uses us to build future, character, conviction, joy, love, peace and much more in people as they see His love through us. We partner together to build Christ up, making His glory big, in the generations.
1 Chronicles 29:16 so beautifully states, “O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have prepared to build You a house for Your holy name is from Your hand, and is all Your own.” God is building His house in the earth. He is building, but He puts the resources and abilities in our hands. We are like Noah who built the ark. With God’s direction and provision, He built a safe place for all who would enter. When the floods came, those in the ark were protected and the next generation of Noah’s family was saved. We are building an ark, called the church, providing a place of refuge and salvation for the generations. We get to play a part! We get to hammer a nail, paint a wall and lay the foundation in the hearts of men, women and children who need our glorious Savior! What an honor it is to help build the house that builds me!
Here is the link to Miranda Lambert's song, The House That Built Me:
