September 29, 2023

For a couple weeks now we have been naming the obvious: that much of life finds us in the middle of various messes. At certain times they can be big, audacious, hairy messes, but more likely for most of us, most of the time, these messes show up as inconveniences, stress from frantic schedules, or other similar reminders that shout out to us that we are not nearly as in charge as we’d like to be. Our life group last week was reflecting on the first two chapters of Judges, and all of us in the group found entry points in the passage where we could name our own messy middles. And even more important, we were able to name ways that we grew as a result of going through some of those messes.

This week as Karl takes us into the story of Deborah, where we will see that it is precisely in the middle of the messy middles where God does some of his most marvelous work (say that 10 times fast!). In other words, we don’t have to clean up the mess before we can expect to see God at work and inviting us to grow as a result of stepping in with him. And that’s really good news! If you get a chance to read Judges 4-5 before Sunday that is where we will be.

Also in our Sunday gathering we will hear Jill Meyer interviewed about Parent Life, the ministry through Youth for Christ that she leads. We are so grateful to our Flourish Team for highlighting our various local ministry partners during the past month!