Wrecked...

When I see the word "wrecked," it brings a lot of things to mind. With Mom's accident recently, it's come to describe what happened to her in a moment of vulnerability. Sometimes it also means having a little too much to drink and having things get out of hand. My friend, Andrew Fortune, liked to use the term to describe what happened when he would strongly sense God's presence at a certain time. It just so happened that I had the experienced of getting "wrecked" a few weeks ago during the Vineyard Leadership Conference in Galveston. I cried like a baby throughout the conference and left there wondering "what now?"

Then a few weeks ago, I read this blog by Crispin Schroeder. Crispin is a musician on staff at the Vineyard Church in Kenner, Louisiana. He recently made it known that he and his family would be planting a church in the Covington/Mandeville area in the same state.

I have to admit that I get a little envious of church planters nowadays when they make this sort of announcement. The experts say it's easier to manage planting a church when a couple's children are small or grown. Teen and pre-teen children seem to have more difficulty with the process of relocating and acclimating to the new way of life. But, when our children were small, we couldn't seem get our act together long enough to get the blessing to proceed. As our family has grown, it's often seemed like little more than a pipe dream. "Life comes at you fast," the commercial says, and we've just found ourselves and our children getting older. The dream of planting a church is still there, but it's like something placed on a shelf, gathering dust.

Reading Crispin's blog coincided with the "wrecked" experience for me. Though he didn't use the word "wrecked," I got exactly what he meant. The world needs to see people who've been wrecked by the love of God.

It may not mean much at all and may never come to anything, but last night something happened to me in a Wal Mart parking lot. In the middle of making plans to move my parents away from the first place I ever called "home," the place called back - or maybe it was God calling back. I really don't know which. Originally, when I thought of planting a church, I felt that the church to be planted would be in a wild and raucous place: Gun Barrel City, Texas. To drive through the area, it would seem the last thing the city needs is another church. But, I'm sure they could use one that Crispin describes - made up of people who have been "wrecked" by the love of God for people who need him most.

So, while driving down the main drag, I felt the heart of God for a part of the world that is as dear to me as my own life. They need to meet people who've been wrecked by God's love. My prayer was, and will be, "God, send someone, who's been wrecked by your love, to this place. And, if no one else will go, then send me." Some day. One day. Whenever.

Yeah, I'm wrecked, but it's OK.