the journey... a little closer to home

My family and I have just left a community, where we lived for almost a year, in which we lived with other people that shared our values, challenged the ways we lived out our convictions, and lovingly held us accountable for our actions. We are now living comfortably in Iowa (just a short drive from my home state of Missouri), and the strides that we made in taking hold of our lives and living them more intentionally while supported by our pillars of community will carry us to places that we can not dream. Geography has made the support of those pillars less emphatic now, since the community mentioned is still functioning in Nashville, Tennessee, and I want to find a way to continue my walk into a life that I can lead with purpose, one that embraces my gifts and connects me with the communities surrounding me and my God whom I have grown to know and love. The first week that we moved to Coralville (about three weeks ago now), my family and I attended the Methodist church down the street. We wanted to go somewhere that was in walking distance, so we started with the nearest church. That Sunday, Doug Williams, the pastor, was beginning his sermon series in re-creation and the spiritual disciplines. The service was short and simple, and I was refreshed. I felt more spiritually renewed than I had been in a long time. I decided to begin studying the disciplines and use the conversations that are born around me to begin to cultivate a dialogue about who and where I am in my walk with Jesus. I'm excited about this new time in my life and I hope that the journey is worth the walk and that some of you will visit me along the way.

My wife and I have had long and hard conversations about simple and sacrificial lifestyles, so I am going to begin there. I think its best to start where I have some experience (however brief and inadequate it might be.) I am going to do some reading and thinking and I will begin my assault in the next few days.