Greetings friends:

Thanks for checking out the first entry of my blog!  I’m excited about the beginning of Faith Presbyterian Church, and I’m excited that this web site is about to go public.  I’m sitting at our breakfast room table writing this entry.  As I look around, I see how far this house has come since we our move in April.  The bedrooms upstairs are now in a semblance of good order.  The kids’ playroom, which on moving day looked like the unfortunate result of a toy factory explosion, is now orderly, with each toy having its own place (even if these toys have a hard time finding their way back to their place).  Downstairs, our living room is set up, our bookshelves are full, and our mantle is covered with birthday cards from recent celebrations.  The kitchen has been organized and then re-organized.  We even had the correct plug installed on our clothes dryer, so that room is now functional.  The house, now a home, seems to have reached the stage of comfortable livability…except for one room.

As I type this, I’m looking into our small living room at the front of the house.  It is still stacked high with boxes.  These boxes contain many, many books.  It is not as though we haven’t had time to finish unpacking.  It’s just that we don’t have anywhere to put the books.  Our old house had a plethora of built-in bookshelves that are not a part of our new floor plan.  So, for the time being, the boxes sit there cluttering up a home that is pretty well set otherwise.

Does this scenario serve as a metaphor for our lives?  Many of the people with whom I have contact seem to have their lives in order.  You know the type—good marriage, loving family, meaningful relationships, relationship with God, satisfying job that pays the bills.  In fact, many of us ARE that type, and that’s good.  But, if we are honest with ourselves, don’t most of us have at least that one little room in our lives that is too full of clutter—the clutter of jealousy, of holding onto a grudge much longer than we should, of spending too much time on ME and not enough time on US, of wanting to help people but never quite finding the time or the opportunity?  The wonder of God is just this—God loves us and accepts us, clutter and all.  Even if we don’t “have it all together,” God is with us offering strength in our times of weakness and hope when things seem hopeless.  Praise God, from whom all blessings flow!!

At Faith Presbyterian, you probably won’t find a church-full of people who have every aspect of their/our lives in order.  We will all bring a little clutter with us.  It is my hope and prayer that we will be there for one another as we unpack our clutter.