By now, most people who know me know that my husband and I transitioned out of church planting. We are now no longer AG ministers by choice and are credentialed by a international fellowship of ministers. We didn’t want to be denominational any longer. We are post-post alot.  Without getting into things that might depress church planters who read this, rather say that I could have let this church plant lemon in my life make me roll over and play dead. I sure wanted to. For an overachiever that I am (at least that is what most personality tests say I am LOL), this was one of my most bitter failures. The other two were not be able to carry to term having my youngest son at 26 weeks of gestation which led to a whole other journey and that I almost lost my husband (usually its a two person issue so I take 1/2 the blame). The church plant is right up there in third place.  But you see, none of these things (I know now) were a surprise to God although they were a big surprise to me. I needed to go through that journey. Why? Because “the reason for the journey is this: in a journey, discoveries are made.” (unknown, wrote it on a piece of paper four years ago and found it in my binder as I work on my book proposal)

 Could we have continued? Yes. Did we want to? No. Do we miss it? Very much. What do you miss most? Our worship. Why didn’t we continue? That is forthcoming in my church plant adventures from a feminine perspective but bottomline…the third year hurt. It seems like others go though similar journey’s. Some make it through and thrive, others make it through and continue to struggle with 20 people, some like us, decide to “make the bad man stop!” and give it away and others fully merge with another church.

I found this story  by Chris Elrod of Compass Point Church in Lakeland, FL in Next Wave that I thought related to our story in some way. I want to post it here because this points out again that we need to share our stories because we all learn from each other. This is the 2nd part of that story and you need to subscribe to Next Wave to get the 3rd part.

I made many discoveries on my journey so far, here are some:

* I was self-righteous- I thought if I did things for God, God would protect me and never let anything bad happen to me or my loved ones. Wrong. Bad thing happen to good people.

* I was theologically messed up - My Latino Pentecostal upbringing had me believing that you just ask God, and he answers in the affirmative. Wrong. God does answer every prayer but sometimes its a most definite NO! or NOT NOW! I still haven’t got used to any one of those answers but I can handle them better now. I no longer believe in a Genie Jesus.

* I realized some Christians are just as bad as those who don’t know God - I thought those who professed to know God would be more responsible, more caring, more authentic, just more and that they wouldn’t be backstabbing, wouldn’t be jealous,  …and uh, you guess it. I was wrong again (what a bummer). I was near middle age when I figured this one out. So glad I finally got the human depravity thing before I was 80!

and drum roll please….

* I realized that there is absolutely nothing that can hold me back from pursuing God’s best for my life but me! That means that no matter how many lemons I had handed to me, I could always use them to make sweet, sweet lemonade! “It’s a sad day when you find out that it’s not accident or time or fortune but just yourself that kept things from you!” (Lillian Hellman).

It was in DJ’s hospital room, when he almost died on me that God gave me a word right next to his bed. That was when I was beginning to contemplate walking away from the church plant because of my family needs and I just felt God say, “this is why you need to write, to speak, because life doesn’t always turn out the way you plan but nevertheless, one thing is certain, you can always, always rebound. You will rebound from this and others need to know they can do the same!”  You know what verse came to mind when all this was happening? Proverbs 24:16, “No matter how many times you trip them up, God-loyal people don’t stay down long;…”(The Message). The NLT says it this way, “The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again…”

This is how our Rebound Life Architects started and the foundation of it all came from my journey. So you see, we all discover and yes, even birth, many things in our journey. Some will continue to live, others will fulfill their purpose and die but everything, everything in our journey is a lesson if we choose to let it be so. So don’t be afraid of life people! Don’t be afraid of risking because you don’t want to fail at something…that will keep you from EVER accomplishing anything worthwhile. Instead, remember this, “the people who are really failures are the people who set their standards so low, keep the bar at such a safe level, that they never run the risk of failure” (Robert Schuller).

A risk free life is a safe way to fail at life, don’t you think? So yeah, I haven’t succeeded at everything I have attempted to do but heck, I feel great to have attempted great things and I got some more living to do…so watch out world because “(lemons) others can stop you temporarily but you are the only one who can do it permanently” (Zig Ziglar).

Failed at something? Fell? Get back up again…we are internally wired to rebound so says the Word (Prov. 24:16).