Hi friend 🙂 Before we begin to see the Lord transform this space, I want to be very clear about something: You are welcome here. Wherever you are sitting, the Lord of Lords and King of Kings looks on you with love, delight, and an invitation. I don’t know where your feet have led you, what trials you have seen, or what pain has seared your heart. I don’t know who has whispered (or shouted) who Jesus is to you. But I want to stop for a second.

     Most of the time, the Jesus we see is not the Jesus I know (amazing song by Benjamin Hastings :). Most of the time, we see broken people living out of an attempt to be worthy, to mask insecurity, and to cover heartache and loneliness (and let's be honest, don't we do this too?). We see the rules separate us so strictly from a deep, soul-flourishing relationship with our Father. We see leaders fall from their pulpit and show us once again that trusting in people can be too hard, and then inevitably questioning: is there any point? We may have been hurt by people close to us, sometimes out of good attempts to show us an intentional life, but really succeeding more in showing us how to shut down our heart (not at all what Jesus wants!). And then there's the Jesus-flipping-tables-at-it Christianity where people walk around with this (evil) idea that they are better than other people simply because they can easily pull Scripture and apply it to anything because, after all they know what Jesus would do, or live in the right neighborhood, or always seem to stay in line. While some of that can be good, never ever does it make one better than another. And when Jesus saw this fake parade, he rebuked it. He stormed in and flipped tables at the injustice (Matthew 21:12-13). No friend, these "reflections" of Jesus are not the Jesus I am talking about. 

     The Jesus I know flipped the tables! The Jesus I know bends down beside us and whispers that we are seen. The Jesus I know smiles gently while we question if we are going to make it through something heartbreaking. The Jesus I know will sit with us!! Not in our nicest clothes, with the kitchen in perfect condition, while our children sit perfectly still. No, he sits with us when we are sitting on the floor, hair in a messy bun, wearing last nights pj's and as he talks with us about a life of abundance. He meets us where we are. But, as the saying goes, absolutely will he not leave us there. He meets us in the life of the mundane, in the earth-shattering panic, and in the gospel-singing good.

In no way shape or form am I trying to preach at you from a sense of perfection. Philippians 3:12 states, “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.” As I continue to grow into this, I want to invite you, and more importantly, Jesus wants to invite you into this journey where we lean into our Savior and say, “Yes Lord, I want to be made well.”