Vineyard Church of Knox County
Step by Step (Toward a Facility)
Those of you who have been to the Grand Canyon know that it is impossible to describe in mere words the experience of walking up to the edge and looking down. It is just an incredible sight! Truly amazing! Many people have been to the Grand Canyon just to stop and look down from the rim while others walk part of the way down the trail that leads to the base camp before turning back. When I was in middle school, though, my parents and I hiked down to the very bottom of the Grand Canyon and stayed in the lodge along the Colorado River. Let me tell you something, every step we took down that trail gave us a new scene, a new vision, a new perspective on the Canyon. Every step brought an experience that the previous step did not. Every step.
It seems to me that’s often the way God leads us, too, as we follow the path that He has marked out for us. Each of these paths leads to Him and His will for our lives. Sometimes He’ll lead us to what seems to be only the rim, the trail edge, in order to give us the perspective from there without leading us further. Other times He takes us on a path that seems to lead only part of the way to the goal in order to give us the perspective from there. Other times He takes us all the way to what we see as the final goal.
The point is that our role is simply to stay on the path to which He calls us and to stay on it as long or as short as He desires. Whether we get to the “bottom,” the goal, or not is not our ultimate concern. Our ultimate concern is to keep our eyes open and to take in the lessons that He teaches us each step of the way.
God has led this church along several different paths as we seek to follow His lead in finding a more permanent facility from which we can fulfill the Great Commission. We have investigated buying land, leasing a building, and, most recently, buying a building and renovating it, none of which have “worked out.” Every time we follow His lead we believe that we are headed all the way to the final goal, but we always keep in mind that He may take us only partially along a path just to give us a different perspective than we had before. He may lead us toward a facility that in the end does not work out, but the lessons we learn about ourselves and about following Him are invaluable. Each step we take gives us a different vision, a different perspective, a deeper understanding of God and His will for us than did the previous step.
Eventually God will lead us down a path that actually ends in securing a facility of some kind. We look forward to that day! But, we don’t want to miss the lessons at each step along the paths we will follow because each step presents new growth and understanding. Each step draws us closer to the heart of God and His will for us. We look forward to following the next path God leads us on not knowing for sure where exactly it will lead. Whether it ends in us securing a facility or not, we can be sure that it will lead us closer to Him.
